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 San Miguel Residents Demand Clean Water
F or over a thousand days, residents in the urbanisations of Blue Lagoon and Eagles Nest in the San Miguel municipality have been without potable water. It is a basic fundamental human right to have clean, drinkable water and in a direct protest to voice their grievances to the San Miguel Town Hall, hundreds of residents made their way in over 60 cars, in a snail paced convoy, causing massive disruption throughout the town. Over 3,000 households are subjected to poisonous water coming out of their taps and many residents, most of whom are retired and elderly, have to buy gallons of water from supermarkets every week for washing, cooking and bathing, because it is dangerous to use their own. Last week's protest was organised by the San Miguel Arcangel Neighbours Association, who have supported many protests and demonstrations in the municipality over the last few weeks. The water problems have been ongoing for over four years and tests to analyse substances the water contains have been carried out using samples from various sources in both urbanisations. The tests stated that the water is poisonous and allegedly it contains nitrates and toxins that can be extremely damaging to the health of residents, especially young children and the elderly. The Mayor of San Miguel, Angel Saez Huertas, has known for the last three years that the water is unfit for human consumption and yet he has failed to rectify the problem. Even the Valencian authorities are aware of the situation and still the residents, who are mainly expats, have been left to suffer for what is now over 1000 days.
According to Manuel Gomez from the Arcangel Neighbours Association, the Mayor had promised to get this situation resolved during the election campaign, but like many other election promises, this one seems to have been conveniently forgotten. Manuel said, "There was a project, that had been supported by the municipal council, to take the water from San Miguel de Salinas, a distance of eight kilometres and also the construction of two water deposit tanks. It was an expensive project that would have taken many months to complete and would have cost more than 3 million euros." Snr Gomez continued, "The cheapest, easiest and quickest option is to connect to the drinking water from the Orihuela Costa, where the dividing line of municipalities is only one street." He concluded,"If the Mayor of San Miguel and the Mayor of Orihuela had discussed this solution, the problems could have been solved a long time ago." The convoy of cars made their way through the town, via the church square and along the main street. With horns blaring and posters demanding safe, clean water blazoned all over the vehicles, the procession passed the existing Town Hall and the brand, spanking new one that is in the process of being built right next door. One wonders whether the construction of such a big new council building is appropriate use of the municipality's money, given that some of its residents cannot even bathe or wash their clothes in the water that comes out of their very own taps.
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