Until now, the Madrid City Council had systematically said No to the opposition’s requests to create a network of climate shelters like the one in Barcelona, which was a pioneer in Spain in 2019 and which cities such as Bilbao, Vitoria, Málaga and Murcia have followed. However, the City Council gave on Thursday an apparent turn of the helm, announcing that will promote cultural spaces such as museums, cinemas and libraries as an oasis against the heat in July and August, with special activities and discounts, to which it adds swimming pools and markets, 300 public facilities, a water jet, two nebulizers, fountains and 60 day spots for homeless people.
But can this be considered a network of climate refuges? “No, not at all,” climatologist Javier Martín Vide, who popularized the concept in Spain, responds to this newspaper. This professor of Physical Geography at the University of Barcelona defines them as “free places in which to spend the central hours of the day in the best possible way, indoors or outdoors.” The first can be public buildings, civic centers, libraries, schools or even private but freely accessible centers, which have air conditioning with a maximum temperature of 27° and free drinking water available. The latter are parks, but “with lots of shade and trees, drinking fountains and sheets of water to refresh the environment.”
The key is that “they are free as a condition sine qua non because, if not, they do not fulfill their social and health purpose”, that “they are identified with signs so that the citizen knows where to go”, that “their location can be consulted on a map”, that they are “10 minutes away” on foot” and that they are “available and open from the beginning of the season and throughout the summer.” Finally, it must be a “formal” network, designed to cover a high percentage of the population and with fine planning, without shadow areas, and special attention to the most vulnerable groups, the elderly, those with chronic diseases and the poor, who live in homes without thermal insulation, without air conditioning and in conditions of energy poverty.”
One water jet and two nebulizers
Asked by the City Council if it will mark these spaces in a special way and publish a map with all the points, as in Barcelona, where 97% of the population has one less than 10 minutes away, the answer is “in principle, no.” “These spaces are for heat waves and are nothing new. They were already included in last year’s protocol, they are available in case of need and it is the municipal services that refer citizens. In addition, this year more activities are included during the hottest hours in municipal spaces so that Madrid residents have more alternatives during July and August,” explains the spokesperson. That is to say, a large part of these supposed shelters will only be enabled during episodes of extreme heat and their distribution does not cover the bulk of the population, with the aggravating factor that museums, swimming pools and cinemas are chargeable.
“Madrid does not meet any of the six conditions to talk about climate refuges,” concludes the climatologist. “What the City Council has announced is not a plan. The majority of municipal facilities do not open on the weekend,” the PSOE spokesperson in Madrid, Reyes Maroto, points out to this newspaper, who recommends that the vice mayor, Inmaculada Sanz, “read the guide of the Spanish Network of Cities for the Climate to “Learn how to develop an action plan.”
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In reality, what the City Council has done, as the vice mayor and spokesperson admitted in a press conference, combine “different measures implemented in the face of the effects of extreme heat waves” by the district boards and six government areas. The plan begins by disseminating recommendations such as protecting yourself from the sun, staying hydrated and taking care of your diet through Emergencies Madrid and Madrid Salud. The Social Policies Area “has concrete measures for homeless people through transfers, if necessary, by the Samur Social.”
We want the government of @AlmeidaPP_ Put aside your climate denialism and start working seriously to combat the effects of heat waves on your neighbors.
Some of our proposals could be implemented immediately.
It’s a matter of will… pic.twitter.com/PWvHovYswb
— Reyes Maroto (@MarotoReyes) May 23, 2024
In addition, this department will deploy, “as a pilot project and starting in June”, a campaign for people in a situation of social emergency at the Villa de Vallecas Reception Center, where 60 places have been set up between 12:00 and 20:00 for They can protect from heat, with hydration, food and hygiene. The City Council also highlighted that the swimming pool season has already begun, in which there will be 21 outdoor facilities and eight indoor ones with a solarium. Rates range from 1.80 for half a day to 4.50 euros for a full day for adults, with discounts for children, young people and seniors. The problem, according to Reyes Maroto, is that “800,000 residents will not have a public pool this summer.”
Sanz added, without giving a date, that the Urban Planning, Environment and Mobility Area will open “soon” the beach of Madrid Río (the water jets of this park near Arganzuela) and the areas with nebulizers in Plaza de España (Moncloa-Aravaca) and the La Gavia pergola (Villa de Vallecas). He has also highlighted that “more than 92% of the 2,148 fountains” in the capital are operational.
In addition, Sanz pointed out that the Vice Mayor’s Office, Security and Emergencies Area “has about 300 pieces of equipment equipped as air-conditioned areas.” A municipal spokesperson clarifies that they are “municipal spaces that depend on the districts and that, in case of emergency, could be enabled by the boards,” such as district cultural centers, reading rooms and music schools.
The Area of Economy, Innovation and Finance will inform “on the municipal website of the municipal markets that have air conditioning” and Culture, Tourism and Sports “will promote cultural spaces as a refuge from the heat during July and August.” It is “an information and incentive campaign” so that the population comes to them, with agreements with the National Museum of the Prado, the Reina Sofía, the Thyssen and the Gallery of the Royal Collections, movie theaters and the Hotel Business Association from Madrid (Aehm).
“There will be special activities in museums and cinemas will offer discounts from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.,” the City Council detailed. How many rooms will offer this discount? Culture does not have a figure and refers to a future presentation of the initiative. The municipal libraries “will also have special programming, aimed at children,” while the Aehm “will disseminate this campaign among tourists to direct them to museums during the central hours of the day.”
Enrique Villalobos, president of the Regional Federation of Neighborhood Associations of Madrid, considers it “good news that the City Council finally accepts that we are in a climate emergency,” but the plan seems to him “more of an embryo than something sufficiently consistent.” “It is very little for what this city needs. In addition to the quantitative weakness of the proposals, it seems more like a sum of isolated elements, not originally designed for the purpose they are presented and with an evident absence of social criteria as they are poorly defined agreements with companies,” Villalobos concludes.
The eight-point protocol of the PSOE
Faced with this municipal plan, the PSOE will defend next Tuesday in plenary session an eight point protocol, which includes measures such as enabling in each of the 131 neighborhoods “at least” one shelter open “every day of the week and until ten at night.” At a press conference, Reyes Maroto explained on Thursday that centers such as libraries, cultural or youth centers that already operate de facto as shelters, but many are closed on weekends and in the evenings. Maroto admitted that his proposal is temporary: the City Council would have to be “more ambitious” and create a “true network of shelters,” with the goal that, in 2030, every resident of Madrid “can have one within a 15-minute walk.” From home”.
Another point is to ask the City Council to republish – it stopped doing so in 2021 – the heat vulnerability maps, which show heat levels by neighborhood and district and which allow acting in a “much more particular” way in depending on the vulnerability of each area. It also demands that the City Council, together with the Community, develop a “strategy for the air conditioning of educational centers”; that a “special device for homeless people” be activated; and to implement a master plan so that there is one swimming pool per district and to repair the existing ones, to avoid situations such as that of the Peñuelas swimming pool, closed this summer for works. “More than 800,000 residents will face a closed pool,” Matoro denounced.
In addition, the PSOE asks that municipal sports centers be air-conditioned and that they open more hours and that shaded spaces, green areas, trees, the number of fountains and sheets of water be increased, as well as betting on “urban planning.” comfortable” and far from the reform of Puerta del Sol, for Maroto an example of “denialist urbanism” by lacking shade.
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