Junta de Andalucía orders the Communities of Irrigators and Users Fuente del Badén, in Nerja, not to supply water to households.

The Communities of Irrigators and Users Fuente del Badén will not be able to continue providing service to the properties from January 1st, when they will have to contract the service with Aguas de Narixa.

In full drought, with the reservoir of La Viñuela at 17% of its capacity, with only 28.2 cubic hectometers stored, 16 less than a year ago, Nerja can boast of being a real oasis in the middle of the desert in which the Axarquia is becoming. Not in vain, its name comes from the Arabic ‘Narixa’, which means abundant spring.

Despite the fact that in the last six months hardly ten liters per square meter have fallen in the urban area of the easternmost coastal town of the province, and only six in La Viñuela, the Chíllar river continues to have a permanent flow in its highest area. For this reason, given the pressing situation of drought and the prospect that the expected rains continue not to arrive, the Board is finalizing the transfer of about three cubic hectometers for the supply of the eastern area of Velez-Malaga, Algarrobo and Torrox.

In this context, the Junta has issued a resolution which obliges 650 houses in Nerja, located in urbanizations, to connect to the municipal network. The measure affects the Community of Irrigators and Users Fuente del Badén, which from next January 1 must cease its water supply activity, thus complying with the resolution of the General Technical Secretariat of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Sustainable Development that imposes “the obligation to cease the supply of water for the supply of housing”.

In this sense, the Community of Irrigators and Users Fuente del Badén has communicated to the City Council and its members the cessation of supply from next December 31, so that, to avoid incidents, communities of urbanizations and owners of isolated houses “should contact Aguas de Narixa to formalize the connection to the Municipal Water Service,” as reported from the Consistory nerjeño in a statement.

New connections

According to the City Council, “this service has the means and infrastructure necessary to dispense to the owners the standard of quality, pressure and flow achieved in the rest of the municipality”. “The new connections to be processed will be carried out in accordance with the requirements established in the regulation of domestic water supply of Andalusia and the Ordinance of the provision of water supply and sanitation service of Nerja,” they said.

For their part, from the Community of Irrigators and Users Fuente del Badén have stressed that since 1979 they have been supplying water “to no less than 4,000 homes in Nerja.” “This service, provided without any profit motive, has contributed decisively in the last 40 years to our municipality has developed as a benchmark in tourism, has grown in population, and both its neighbors and that same City Council have benefited from the growth of the various developments surrounding the town center and could not be served by the municipal supply network,” they have argued in a statement.

The community argues that “some people in charge of the municipal water company, moved exclusively by economic interests, have considered that the presence in the municipality of a water supply of better quality and cheaper price than the one they were offering made them competition, so for years they undertook a campaign of harassment and complaints” against them before various administrations”.

As a result, they argue, which has resulted in that, finally, last November 9 the Territorial Delegation of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries of Malaga has notified them a resolution “by which, although the appeal is partially estimated and the sanctions imposed are annulled, however the order to stop the water supply is maintained, and literally communicates: “expressly declaring the obligation to stop the water supply for the supply of housing, which must be complied with in its strict terms”.

“However, this order has not taken this Community by surprise, which already in March 2021 had requested and held a meeting with the City Council to coordinate a schedule for the progressive withdrawal of the water supply provided by the community, enabling the execution of the works that would allow its replacement by the municipal water service”, have continued from the private entity.