A veritable minefield, with the difference that in this case, if you step in the wrong place, you don’t run the risk of flying through the air, but of being swallowed by the earth. This is the current situation of the so-called Orilla del Azarbe, a street of about four kilometers that crosses up to five different districts: El Esparragal, Cobatillas, Llano de Brujas, Santa Cruz and El Raal, until it ends at the border with the municipal term of Orihuela. The particularity of this road, to which it owes its name, is that an important irrigation channel runs through it, which was arched more than three decades ago.
This work made it possible to provide a wide pedestrian area on the right side of the road –the left one belongs to Santomera–, also facilitating access to the houses in that area. But practically a year ago, the friends of foreign property decided to make their own in this important peripheral road and took at least a dozen of the manhole covers that give access to the channel, with the aim, quite possibly, of selling them for make scrap The objects of these robberies were particularly those that were almost attached to a tablacho, for counting, possibly with a greater ease to be uprooted.
“People who go for a walk are at risk of falling and hurting themselves, and in two months we have pilgrimages,” says a resident
This circumstance has turned this route, especially in the area belonging to El Raal, into a section with a certain danger, if it is not covered with due care. Some residents have chosen to repair these holes in the slab by their own means, but most of them do not have more protection and signaling than that provided by a wooden panel, a grid that does not fit or adapt to the hole existing, or stacked stone, bricks, and cinder blocks.
«We cannot continue like this; The residents of the area still know more or less about the situation and we go with a thousand eyes, but if you are not paying attention, even more so after sunset, you can slip in and end up in the canal, with the risk, in addition, if it is with water, of drowning, particularly in the case of children” explains Francisco García, a resident of the area. The situation can be especially compromised as spring approaches and the weather improves, since this area lends itself to walking.
The villager defends that he cannot afford these jobs financially and the Department points out that there is no record of any request
The Rocío festival, held in April last year, was already a litmus test for controlling this situation, since on these dates, the faithful travel this route in pilgrimage. “Upon seeing the situation, the Consistory and the Local Police itself established the need to place fences that clearly indicated where the gaps were, so there is evidence in the administration of this situation,” adds García.
Given the need, the question is to clarify who is responsible for such an arrangement. Despite being an irrigation channel, the Board of Landowners rejects that it is a job that corresponds to it. It is proclaimed by Antonio Belmonte, the attorney for this irrigation community in the area and the general secretary of the Huerta corporation, Juan Jesús Sánchez. In fact, the latter points out that, while the cleaning of the piped ditches is carried out by the Board itself through an economic agreement from the City Council – “which we have not been paid for for years” – the arrangement of the roof corresponds to the municipal administration, “which It was the one that promoted the falsework, telling, in addition, that this is not a component of the channel, but that it is constituted as part of the public road ».
No Board Budget
For his part, the villager from El Raal, Antonio Soto, claims he does not have a budget to carry out these repairs. «We barely have 150,000 euros per year for current spending – including parties – and investments; If we assume this type of work, we have no room for anything else, even more so if it ends up assuming that this is a mandatory responsibility of the Municipal Board, “defends Soto, appealing to the responsibility of the City Council to undertake these works, without forgetting” the need to periodically renew a formwork”. “The vapors and humidity generate aluminosis in the concrete that ends up sinking,” adds the pedáneo.
For its part, from the City Council and, in particular, from the Department of Pedanías, it is pointed out that “there is no formal record of any request to develop these works.” “From the Municipal Board of El Esparragal, a request of this type was made to us and an investment of 15,000 euros was agreed,” add the same sources. “There will be no document demanding reparation, but this situation is known because I have transmitted it,” Soto replies. Meanwhile, he will have to keep an eye on where his foot goes.
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