When they reached retirement age, Francesc Tor, 80, and Antònia Laura Porta, 71, settled in the place where they were born, Cava (Alt Urgell), one of the municipalities of Catalonia with greater risk of depopulation. Of the less than 50 currently registered, only 26 or 27 live regularly in one of its three centres, Anso vell, el Querforadat and Cava, according to the mayor, Gisela Sellés. More than half are retired, and those who work do so outside, in La Seu d'Urgell, Andorra, France... The scenario facing Cava could be extrapolated to other small towns in the Garrigues, the Noguera, the Solsonès , the two Pallars, the Alta Ribagorça, the Alt Urgell, the Urgell, the Conca de Barberà, the Priorat, the Terra Alta or the Ribera d'Ebre, where urgent actions are needed to mitigate the loss of inhabitants.
Cava has no grocery store or bar and the schools closed decades ago, although several rural tourism houses and second homes operate in an environment that offers fascinating views of Cadí. Stepping into Cava is like stepping into paradise, although some people who started a new life here during the covid pandemic returned to the city when normalcy returned. But in the summer, the neighbors multiply by three or four, because of the low head.
The Association of Microtowns of Catalonia; Eines de Repoblament Rural (ERR), the lobby created in 2021 and which brings together more than 500 councils from a maximum of 2,000 registered, and various studies warn of the uncertain future facing small towns. Geographers Ignasi Aldomà and Josep Ramon Mòdol, from the University of Lleida, already warned in 2021, in their report on new generational relief indicators in the rural world, that 200 municipalities are "in a critical situation of depopulation". Cava is one of them.
"Abandonment is not accidental. In Catalonia, no policies have been made to stop the loss of inhabitants; in other communities they started earlier. We want rurality to be at the center of the debate and for a law to be approved to achieve positive discrimination. Now we have the same bureaucratic obligations as the Barcelona City Council", argues Jaume Gilabert, coordinator of the ERR and mayor of Montgai.
The ERR and Micropobles hope to have in their hands the draft of the Statute of Rural Municipalities, commissioned by the Generalitat, to see to what extent their requests are met. Mario Urrea, president of Micropobles and mayor of Torrebesses, points out that unavoidable issues are "the issue of financing and administrative simplification. We want more flexibility and common sense, they cannot demand the same from us as in the big cities".
In Cava, for example, they do not have any municipal workers and share a secretary and administrative office with two other councils. "We have no resources. When it snows all the neighbors clean the road. Only one day a month does a boy come to do maintenance work", comments the mayoress, who settled in this enclave of Alt Urgell in 2016. The Consistory is now immersed in the procedures to modify the plan of 'municipal urban planning (POUM) so that, if a project is presented, bars or restaurants can be opened in its municipal area. "Now the POUM does not allow it", says the mayoress.
The ERR and Micropobles – an association that brings together 240 town councils with less than 1,000 inhabitants – hope that the future statute will determine formulas to adapt the Urbanism law to the reality of the local world by creating specific management models for centers in recession. Bearing in mind that a common problem is the housing deficit, which drives out young people who want to emancipate and blocks the arrival of potential new neighbors, the ERR proposed the alternative of adapting houses in existing constructions on land rustic and increase the tax pressure on owners of closed buildings, second homes and tourist apartments, among other measures.
"For us, second homes are more of a problem than a benefit; yes, some properties have been repaired, but they have caused an increase in prices and made it difficult for locals to access a home. In addition, 15% of the town's houses are closed, there are people who prefer them to fall down rather than rent them. We have three or four families who want to come and live here, but who can't find housing", states the mayor of Montgai. "The tragedy is that long-term policies are not designed. If clear and forceful action is not taken, the forgotten Catalonia will become the closed Catalonia, some municipalities find it very difficult to survive", he adds.
Mario Urrea is particularly worried about the economic model to which some micro-villages are forced. "In Segrià, diversified agriculture has been replaced by intensive monoculture. The lifelong farmer rents his land to someone who comes from outside and his children are forced to leave to earn a living. The same goes for windmills and photovoltaic panels. Why don't they put them in the Free Zone? It is more profitable for the farmer to lease his land than to cultivate. This is taking advantage of the misery and feeding the depopulation", reflects Urrea. One of the challenges, in his opinion, is to attract small entrepreneurs, to attract them with tax benefits. These are proposals that the mayors demand to be taken into account in the draft law of the Statute of Rural Municipalities, the draft of which is being reviewed by different departments of the Generalitat, as confirmed by the Presidency.
Gisela Sellés considers that Cava's challenge is no longer to win many more inhabitants, but to retain those it has. The mayor comments that the drought and the limited services available only allow for moderate increases to be considered.
Francesc and Antònia enjoy a peaceful life in Ansovell and take breaks in Andorra, where they have spent half their lives and where their son and daughter live. Francesc worked for 35 years at Forces Elèctriques d'Andorra, and Antònia, in the restaurant sector. "Now we take care of the chickens and a vegetable garden, but we had to put up a fence to prevent wild boars and roe deer from coming in and destroying everything. I also go out to the forest to collect firewood", comments Francesc, annoyed by the little aid that reaches the village. He regrets that one of the streets continues without a finished sewer or access to drinking water.
He explains that 60 years ago all families had wheat fields, dairy cows, as well as pigs and chickens, and that calves were sold at reasonable prices. Now there is no farmer left, there is only a small herd of a producer from another town and the four cows that Antoni Pubill, 80 years old, the only resident of a village, in the center of Cava, takes care of four families used to live there. Now only his farmhouse remains standing there, a privileged viewpoint of the Cadí. "I only left Cal Pubill the two years I was an intern at a school in La Seu and during the military. I consider that Cava is already depopulated, since if people from outside had not settled there, I would be the only one left. Some people came there at first very excited, but they end up leaving", summarizes Antoni, the last witness of a lifestyle on the verge of extinction.
