Photo : Marc Càmara / Diari de Tarragona
In mid-December 2018, Planas del Rey once again experiences an interruption to its water supply.
According to an article published on 18 December by the Diari de Tarragona, the outage begins on Friday 14 December and continues until the afternoon of Monday 17 December.
Òscar Serrano, an opposition councillor and resident of Planas, tells the newspaper that the entire development was affected. He places this latest incident in the context of a series of water supply problems experienced since the beginning of the year.
Pratdip Town Council presents a different view of the situation. Mayor Joan Maria Rovira explains that the service was restored as quickly as possible and points to the operational difficulties of a network that depends on several reservoirs and pumps.
In simple terms: by the end of 2018, water remains one of the main sources of disagreement in Planas del Rey. Residents involved in the protests denounce repeated supply cuts, while the Town Council points to the work already carried out and the technical difficulties affecting the network.
Another outage after a year of disruptions
For Òscar Serrano, the December incident is not an isolated event.
He tells the Diari de Tarragona that residents have been experiencing intermittent interruptions to the water supply since 2 January 2018 and criticises the Town Council for failing to provide a lasting solution.
He particularly questions the monitoring and maintenance of the wells and installations used to supply the various reservoirs in Planas.
By that point, water-related problems had already marked much of 2018. From January onwards, several outages had prompted significant mobilisation among property owners.
Òscar Serrano criticises the lack of investment
In the same article, Òscar Serrano broadens his criticism to the level of municipal investment in Planas.
He says that commitments previously made by the Town Council have not produced the expected results and argues that the development does not receive investment in proportion to the taxes paid by its property owners.
To support his argument, he refers to 428 plots, around 1,000 residents in winter and as many as 2,500 in summer, figures which he compares with the number of homes in the village of Pratdip.
He also accuses the municipality of concentrating investment and subsidies on the historic village centre.
These figures and this assessment reflect statements made by Òscar Serrano and reported by the Diari de Tarragona. They do not, by themselves, constitute a verified analysis of the population of Planas or of the municipality’s overall finances.
A year marked by several protest actions
The Diari de Tarragona recalls that the water problems led to several protests during the year.
Residents of Planas organised a number of demonstrations calling for a lasting solution to the water supply problems.
Among the actions mentioned by the newspaper were the symbolic washing of clothes at the village fountain to protest against the lack of water in the development, as well as a demonstration that resulted in the T-310 road being blocked.
These actions illustrate the high level of tension surrounding the water issue at the time and, more broadly, the relationship between some Planas property owners and the municipality.
The Town Council says it invested in the network
Pratdip mayor Joan Maria Rovira rejects claims that no action had been taken.
He tells the Diari that he was informed of the breakdown on Saturday and contacted Comaigua so that the problem could be addressed.
According to his explanation, water is available, but the reservoirs do not always fill completely. Because the network relies on several pumps, the failure of one component can cause an interruption to the supply in part of Planas.
The mayor also states that the municipality had spent €15,000 on the Planas water supply network since the beginning of 2018 and that approximately 1.5 million litres of water had been supplied during the summer.
These amounts are the figures provided by Joan Maria Rovira to the newspaper.
The mayor also maintains the municipal position that certain infrastructure within the development has not yet been formally accepted by the municipality and considers that the associated costs should ultimately be borne by the property owners.
The mayor raises the possibility of sabotage
Asked about the repeated incidents, Joan Maria Rovira also raises the possibility of deliberate interference with the network.
He says that he considers some of the incidents unusual and states that he has reported his suspicions to the Mossos d’Esquadra.
The mayor had already raised this possibility earlier in 2018 in connection with other breakdowns.
However, nothing reported in the Diari de Tarragona article establishes that sabotage actually took place. It remains a hypothesis put forward by the mayor at the time.
Two opposing interpretations remain
The Diari de Tarragona article once again highlights the two competing interpretations that characterise this period.
For Òscar Serrano and the residents involved in the protests, the repeated outages reflect the absence of a lasting solution and a lack of municipal investment in Planas.
For the Town Council, work has been carried out, but the network remains technically fragile and the administrative status of the infrastructure also limits, in the municipality’s view, the way in which it can intervene.
Added to this is the mayor’s suggestion that some incidents may have been caused deliberately.
What should be remembered
Between 14 and 17 December 2018, Planas del Rey experiences another interruption to its water supply.
Òscar Serrano denounces the repeated outages since the beginning of the year and criticises what he sees as insufficient municipal investment.
Mayor Joan Maria Rovira responds that the municipality has taken action, says that €15,000 was invested in the network during 2018 and states that 1.5 million litres of water were supplied during the summer.
He also raises the possibility of sabotage, although the information published by the newspaper does not establish that this occurred.
In simple terms: this episode brings to a close a year in which water supply problems were one of the main sources of tension in Planas del Rey. By December, despite several interventions and protests, no lasting solution appears to have stabilised the network.
Jim – La Tribune de Planas
Source
This article is based on a report by Marc Càmara published on 18 December 2018 in the Diari de Tarragona: “Els veïns de Planes del Rei denuncien nous talls de subministrament d’aigua”.
