“The mayor is responsible,” shouted last Sunday around thirty residents of the “Los Manantiales” urbanization in front of Hontoba town hall. The reason? The project of a sewage treatment plant which is planned “attached” to their homes in this city of Guadalajara. The residents of “Los Manantiales” affirm that the regulations provide that this type of installation must be located “two kilometers” from the urban center and that the treatment plant will not be located “not even one hundred meters” from their homes.
“People mainly talk about its unsanitary nature, the mosquitoes, the smell and other inconveniences caused by the sewage treatment plants,” explains Rosa García, a resident of the “Los Manantiales” urbanization who promoted the protest. this Sunday. They don’t have much hope of stopping the proceedings, but they will continue to protest. “Because in one way or another it will contaminate the environment of those who live there and our social space, the swimming pool and the bar,” explains the person concerned.
The wastewater treatment plant project has the approval of other public administrations, according to Hontoba town hall. The urban planning department of the Guadalajara Community Council explained in a “non-binding” document that construction is possible “without the need to modify the planning”. [urbanístico]» to authorize the use of the indicated equipment, and a report from the municipal architect of Hontoba explains that the use of the land for a wastewater treatment plant is “appropriate”, according to the applicable regulations.
The report from the Urban Planning Service responds to a question on the question and underlines that “it lacks powers in terms of authorizations, which fall exclusively within municipal competence”, according to the Consolidated Text of the Urban Planning Law. Territory and Development of Urban Planning Activity (). LOTAU). The question he answered came from the General Council of another urbanization in the area, “El Mirador de Hontoba”, which requests that the neighboring urbanization “Los Manantiales” cede “all or part” of land for the construction of a wastewater treatment plant.
Both urbanizations are private. In the same document, it is indicated that the two planned wastewater treatment plants would be built “outside the limits of the developable land”, both in the case of the “Los Manantiales” and “El Mirador” urbanizations. The report also warns that construction cannot be carried out in a flood zone of riverbeds and calls for a “consultation” to be carried out with the Tajo Hydrographic Confederation.
The mayor of Hontoba, Pedro David Pardo de la Riva, explains that the town hall transmitted the data on urban qualification to the “competent” administrations and that they “gave their agreement”. “The only thing we will have to do is admit the license so that they can carry out their project. “He has nothing left,” he explains to elDiarioclm.es. “We have no other solution,” says the mayor, who explains that this proposal to establish the wastewater treatment plant was approved “in 1984 or 1985.”
“The municipality says that it must reclassify the land and that it has no other choice,” laments Rosa García and agrees with the mayor’s statements. The inhabitants of the urbanization, he explains, feel “powerless” in the face of what they consider to be something unstoppable. Around 120 families live in “Los Manantiales”, and there are also other residences during the summer season or for elderly people who leave during the winter.
García also regrets that the information did not reach the neighbors clearly. “It’s very hermetic, it was known in advance and it doesn’t reach us. We had a general meeting and we were not informed of anything,” underlines the person concerned. “Even if it is a small wastewater treatment plant, it cannot be placed so close to an urban center,” emphasizes the neighbor. To this, he adds that neighbors “don’t understand” why a private compensation commission should manage a facility with these characteristics. “I believe that to improve the environment, we should install a large wastewater treatment plant in several municipalities,” he says.
The IMEDAGUA company, specialized in compact installations and systems for industrial and urban water, has published an Environmental Impact Report, in which it defends that the technology and treatment it proposes for the area “not only improve water quality” but also “contributes to the recovery of resources and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions”.
