Portal de Murcia
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- Councilman Miguel Ángel Alzamora filed an official complaint with the Commissioner of the Cortes Generales a few weeks ago, after the dubious procedure of the new water rates ordinance
- World Water Day is celebrated on February 22nd, an initiative of the United Nations, with the slogan "Do not leave anyone behind", recognizing that "Water is a human right for any person, whoever he is and where he is this"
The Ombudsman has now replied to Murcia to the letter sent to this institution.
Specifically, the Ombudsman has expressly stated that he "shares the legal basis stated in the complaint" on the Water Tariff Ordinance, which, among other things, denounced the non-inclusion of the human right to water and the failure to comply with a mandate of the fully that the ordinance be developed in a participatory manner.
The response of the Ombudsman is, for Miguel Ángel Alzamora, "an acknowledgment that things are not being done well in our town hall around an essential basic service.
It is very significant that the municipality does not take into account the allegations that have been presented from our group and that the Ombudsman does. "
Now Murcia denounced among other things, the breach of the agreement of the Plenary, so that the drafting procedure was done in a participatory manner.
The Ombudsman, a state-level body, has answered that, "indeed the participatory process put in place may be scarce, given its brevity and the relevance of its purpose.
That is, in these processes it is necessary to promote and not restrict participation, probably through the simple but crucial decision to extend the period of consultations, and improving as much as possible the publicity and information. "
However, says Alzamora, "the municipal government of the Popular Party continues to ignore these recommendations, and last Friday approved the draft ordinance of rates in the Governing Board, applying a tortuous policy that does not respect democratic minimums and of transparency in the management of a service so important for citizenship ".
The City Council still does not recognize the Right to Water.
On the other hand, the letter sent by the Ombudsman also recognizes the claim of Ahora Murcia in which it requests that the Human Right to Water be included in the ordinance.
In this sense, the Ombudsman has replied that: "The current regulation in the municipality of Murcia seems to require an update, to bring it in line with the fundamental nature of the right to water.
Part of the update will undoubtedly fall on the Ordinance currently under development. "
Alzamora notes that "again the Popular Party has come to the fore announcing measures that it says will be included in the ordinance, such as condoning the debt of vulnerable families.
This is a specific action that will be carried out after the repeated complaints and motions of Ahora Murcia of that unsustainable situation maintained for years, when the problem had been the defective management in the change of execution of the Social Fund of Emuasa.
In particular, Now Murcia presented a motion last December, approved unanimously, to solve once and for all the problem of the debts of low-income families.
This forgiveness of debts that has now been announced by the PP government is a punctual action, which has not been foreseen in the ordinance, nor does it have to.
What that ordinance should include is the recognition of the Human Right to Water in a standard such as this, as the Ombudsman recalled. "
"The PP can not continue doing electoralism that will lower the price of water and while continuing to maintain Murcia as the municipality with the most expensive water in Spain."
For the councilor of Now Murcia the municipal government has been doing electioneering since 2015 with the lowering of the price of water for consumption of citizenship, however, year after year we continue to be the municipality with the most expensive water in the country, and remember Alzamora, "That will continue to be because the measures adopted are insufficient, allow the arbitrariness of the private company and continue to treat water as a commodity that only benefits Hidrogea / AGBAR, and not as a right, a common good and serving the superior general interest of an essential service.
In addition, the ordinance that is to be approved does not present environmental guarantees, nor does it take into account the water costs, so it does not reflect a sufficient progressivity so that whoever wastes the most water, pays more ".
For all these reasons, and in view of the upcoming presentation for approval of the ordinance, affirms Alzamora "we are going to provide more information to the Ombudsman about our research on the debts of vulnerable families, about the latest notices and water cuts of vulnerable families , and about how many of them have been denounced in the courts for not being able to pay the debt, as well as other issues that this ordinance should include ".
Councilman Alzamora recalls that next Friday, February 22, is celebrated the World Water Day, promoted by the United Nations (UN), with the slogan "Do not leave anyone behind", and also this year marks the campaigns informative that "water is a human right for any person, whoever he is and where he is".
Finally, Alzamora highlights that "From Now Murcia we continue to defend the need for a 100% public management of water, with effective mechanisms of democratic control and citizen participation, to fully guarantee the Human Right to Water."
Source: Ahora Murcia
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