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INSIDE SPAIN

Inside Spain: The rubbish police and Costa Blanca’s worst drought in 33 years

In this week’s Inside Spain we look at how a growing number of cities are handing out fines to residents who don’t properly dispose of rubbish and how thousands of people on the Costa Blanca cannot drink tap water due to severe drought.

Published: 24 August 2024 11:05 CEST
Inside Spain: The rubbish police and Costa Blanca's worst drought in 33 years
People on the Costa Blanca are having to queue to fill up bottles of drinkable water due to the severe drought in the region. (Photo by JORGE GUERRERO / AFP)

In 2022, the Spanish government passed a law aimed at dissuading people from littering and not recycling properly, with fines of up to €2,001 for those who left cardboard boxes outside of the correct dumpster. 

In Madrid alone, 299 people have been fined that eye-watering amount since the legislation passed, in most cases because they couldn’t get the Amazon cardboard boxes (with their name and address on them) to fit inside the paper rubbish containers.

READ ALSO: What are the recycling rules in Spain?

This has shocked many people across the country, but the truth is that most town halls in Spain have their own rules in place to prevent people from leaving furniture lying in the street, rubbish bags festering outside or putting litter in the wrong recycling bins.

Under the current approach of getting tough on those who disregard health and environmental concerns, many cities and towns are carrying out more inspections than ever.

The glitzy city of Marbella is among them, having already opened disciplinary action against 128 residents so far this year. Police officers in civilian clothing are patrolling the streets in greater numbers in a bid to catch unsuspecting offenders. Fines range from €90 to €3,000 depending on the severity. 

In Cádiz, undercover cops are also keeping a close eye on rubbish bins. In Cabo de Gata in Almería, €700 fines have been handed out to those leaving rubbish at the beach. 

In Burgos in northern Spain, €300 penalties for leaving a mattress leaning next to a dumpster. 

In Torrevieja in Alicante, new fines range from €150 for minor offences such as chucking cigarette butts on the ground to a whopping €500,000 for serious environmental hazards.

Every town and city sets its own amounts but what’s clear is that there are dozens of recent news stories from every region showcasing how littering is being treated and policed far more seriously than it once was.

In other news, Spain may have managed to avoid a nationwide drought this summer due to some welcome rain over the last eight months, but there are still places where the lack of water is causing serious consequences.

In several towns along the Costa Blanca, people have been warned not to drink tap water as a severe drought has made it saline and undrinkable. 

Teulada, Benitachell and Moraira are among them. Here tourists and locals are queuing up to fill up bottles of drinkable H20 in the midst of a sweltering summer. 

Water usage soars in the Marina Alta area, where there are 38,000 pools, one for every five inhabitants.

The northern part of Alicante province had half the average amount of rain in 2023 and only 10 percent of normal levels so far in 2024.

Copernicus, the EU’s Earth observation agency, on Friday shared a satellite image of Alicante as its photo of the day to highlight the “severe drought” the region is experiencing.

The Valencian Community declared the state of “extreme drought” last March, the worst in 33 years after an extremely hot 2023 which sapped aquifer reserves. Overdevelopment and mass tourism are also contributing enormously to the scarcity. 

There have been restrictions in numerous municipalities across the region since, but some town halls have flouted the advice and continued to allow people to fill up their pools and water their gardens.

What’s clear is that Spain’s fight against drought will never really have an end point, however full the country’s reservoirs become after a period of ‘normal’ rainfall (currently 43 percent full nationwide). 

According to scientists, Spain has the “perfect” conditions for desertification to occur: climate change, overdevelopment, huge volumes of people. From the south, to the east, to the northeast, 73 percent of Spain is at risk of becoming a desert.

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INSIDE SPAIN

Inside Spain: broken bureaucracy promises and avoiding your countrymen on holiday

In this week’s Inside Spain we see why the prior appointment (cita previa) system for official matters is still in place after authorities promised to scrap it, and the places to avoid if you don’t want to bump into your countrymen while on holiday here.

Published: 17 August 2024 10:51 CEST
Inside Spain: broken bureaucracy promises and avoiding your countrymen on holiday

Bureaucracy is arguably the worst thing about life in Spain: the convoluted language, the painstaking processes, the lack of accountability of civil servants and of course the dreaded cita previa. 

Last January, the government promised to get rid of this gatekeeping system used by funcionarios (civil servants) to prevent people from going to public administration buildings to carry out official processes or to ask questions without first having a mandatory ‘prior appointment’.

The cita previa system has been around for ages and applied haphazardly depending on the preferences of the specific branch, but it was during the Covid-19 pandemic that it became compulsory across all public administrations and it’s been kept in place ever since without any justification.

It’s now seven months since Spanish Minister of Digital Transformation and Public Function José Luis Escrivá said he’d scrap the compulsory cita previa system, but much to the frustration of many foreigners and Spaniards, it’s still around.

Numerous law firms have called out the fact that compulsory appointments are “illegal” and authorities have admitted that they should be offering a simpler, more inclusive and friendlier public service. 

On April 26th, the government presented the proposal to axe the cita previa at Congress and since then nothing new is known, with the bill most likely lost in the usual administrative limbo.

Yes, the irony is not lost on us that legislation meant to simplify bureaucracy is being held up by bureaucracy itself.

Government sources have defended the delay by arguing that they have until 2025 for the law to be processed before its deadline, “so there’s time”.  

Now it’s August, the holiday month in Spain, so don’t expect anything important to get done “as soon as possible” as Escrivá said initially. 

Even if legislation banning mandatory appointments does eventually get passed, there is a high chance that what’s promised in theory is very different to what happens in practice, showcased by the recent failures of the spam calls law and the housing law. 

Spain’s General Law Council Association denounced in April the impossibility of obtaining appointments at Spain’s Immigration Office for residency and asylum procedures, a system that’s been taken over by bots run by criminal groups that then sell the appointments to desperate foreigners.

Extranjería is also notoriously short-staffed, so being overrun by people without an appointment every day may not be part of their plans. 

In other news, data published by Spain’s INE stats body has revealed where different nationalities like to spend their summer holidays in Spain. 

Last August, French tourists represented the biggest group of foreign holidaymakers with almost 2.3 million visitors, followed by 2.1 million Brits, 1.25 million Germans and about 700,000 Dutch and 650,000 Italians. 

If you’re a UK national looking to not hear English on your Spanish holidays, then it’s best to avoid Barcelona, Calvià on Mallorca and the south of Tenerife, as that’s where most British holidaymakers in Spain are at this time of year. 

In fact, Brits, Germans and Dutch have a big presence anywhere coastal in Spain in August, so if you want a truer Spanish experience it’s best to head inland.

The city where you’re most likely to find German tourists in August is Palma de Mallorca, but they love the island as a whole. The map in the tweet below shows the flow of Mallorca-bound flights from Germany and the UK on a summer’s morning.

As for the Dutch, there’s an even spread across Palma, Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia in August.

The French also love Barcelona, and their country’s proximity to the Costa Brava and the Basque Country means many of them end up holidaying there. However, French people are the foreign holidaymakers that are most likely to be found off the beaten track in Spain. 

Italians are avid fans of the Canaries, the Balearics and coastal areas, but surprisingly you’re also likely to find a lot of Italian tourists in inland locations such as Extremadura near Portugal, Seville, Madrid and Zaragoza. However, their number one destination is Barcelona.

There’s nothing wrong with encountering your fellow nationals while on holiday (some people might prefer it) but the truth is that if you want a quieter holiday experience overall, August is a month that’s best avoided, as Spain is packed to the brim.

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