Although DANA occurred on October 29, the ravages of this natural catastrophe have only worsened in the following months following the institutional drift that local governments and the Mazón Executive have taken to manage the damage in those areas. where “normality” is not yet a feasible scenario. This is how they feel in an urbanization located on the outskirts of Torrent, specifically in the disseminated neighborhood, where the water supply is non-existent and the roads, devastated, make free movement impossible.
Rafa Gil and Yolanda Gallardo, neighbors and members of the board of directors of the De Agost Neighborhood Association, report that in this housing area, which borders Monserrat and Godelleta, nearly 3,000 residents live together, of which 30 families still do not have with access to water. “There is a person with a baby in charge who has had to go to his cousin’s house to live. And another with two children with disabilities who has left her home,” they assert.
The complaints, conveyed to the town council on more than one occasion, have never materialized. The two neighborhood representatives assure that they have always had a “good relationship” with the members of the government team of Amparo Folgado, mayor of Torrent, but that their promises to serve them as soon as possible have never been fulfilled. “The urban planning councilor has always been attentive and confirmed to us that it would be solved. The reality is that we neighbors do not see results,” says Gil. In this sense, he adds that they have never seen Folgado visit that area.
In the plenary session on January 9, several neighbors came out to denounce the conditions of abandonment that they live in the scattered areas. “We travel on poorly marked agricultural roads. We risk our lives every day. We thought that in 15 days the improvements would be there. We want the ditches to be channeled and not to drain into the roads themselves, which end up flooded and prevent us from leaving the house. We want the city council to continue fighting with the CHJ over a flow meter for the l’Horteta ravine. We Torrentinos are the ones who vote and you have the means to implement them,” said Helena Casas, president of the neighborhood association.
“With a group of volunteers in the month of November, we organized to distribute bottled water from the Toll de l’Alberca. The city council started a tanker truck that went up to this part of town to be able to refill jugs, but in the month of December all that help disappeared,” they say. Now, the association is collecting signatures to file a formal complaint with the municipal body. In it, they request that the water channeling network be updated; pave roads and connect roads; reinstate the nearby garbage and container collection service; recover lighting in common spaces; more signage to differentiate population centers; or apply “a definitive solution” for the floodable fords over the L’Horteta ravine. In addition, they also insist on improving the bus service; the design of a sustainability plan “to value the natural heritage” or the installation of fiber optics.
Sources from the Torrent City Council deny the version of those affected and assure that technicians are working on the damaged infrastructure to “return to normal as soon as possible.” Furthermore, they emphasize that the water in these urbanizations does not depend on the council, but on private wells: “The residents of that area have never demanded drinking water and now after the misfortune they have realized the importance of public supply. Half of those who live there do not have a certificate of occupancy,” they point out.
Asked about the situation of the 30 families without water that the neighborhood association denounces, the city council also denies that it is true: “What exists are five chalets that depend on a private agricultural water company. We cannot intervene there. We have guaranteed the supply of the network free of charge for everyone. “We have helped 5,000 families.” Likewise, they declare that the local body and the Mazón government have allocated a total of 13 million euros for the repair of public spaces and roads: “We are waiting for Mr. Sánchez to give us something. “We are going to ask for a loan.”
Along similar lines, the sources consulted affirm that the repair works on the affected roads have already been awarded by the Agrarian Council of the city council and by the Department of the Environment. “Now there are few machines, operators and material, but in the coming days they will be operational. There is already a part on which work has begun. It has been managed as quickly as possible. Not even three months have passed and everything cannot be fixed overnight,” he emphasizes and adds that meetings have always been held with the residents of that area.
The neighborhood representatives of Agost Torrent maintain that all this chaos has generated a neighborhood movement that shares the same concern and they want to be made visible like the rest of the population in the center of Torrent: “There are roads and paths that remain the same as on December 29. October. Many of us work outside and it is impossible for us to circulate. Superficial fixes have been made. It seems that DANA has only passed through the Xenillet neighborhood. We also want to be cared for,” they highlight.
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