Several million tourists have visited the city of Alicante in the last eight months of 2024. In the Bonfire Week in June alone, more than 1.4 million. But the image that the city has given to the arrival of citizens from all over the world has not been the best, according to different neighborhood associations, the Alicante Clean platform and the opposition, who denounce the “absolute chaos” in cleaning and waste collection. The City Council affirms that “there is no general problem” and that it has put on the table more resources and a new contract with which it is in an “adjustment process.”
Reports of overflowing containers, rubbish scattered in the streets and even episodes of rats are almost daily on social networks, both those managed by neighbourhood associations and anonymous residents of Alicante. “We have had episodes of rats in the centre, in the Benalúa neighbourhood or on the Pla boulevard”, denounces Paloma Valverde, spokesperson for the Clean Coordination of Alicante.
This citizens’ group, tired of suffering these health problems on a daily basis, went so far as to report the situation to the European Parliament, which opened an investigation. Due to the seriousness of the matter, the investigations have not been closed, although, for the moment, no action has been taken by the European institutions. Social pressure has indeed caused a modification of the contract which, according to Alicante Médica, “still works less well than the previous one”.
In mid-August, around a hundred establishments in the El Pla and Les Carolines neighborhoods united against the dirt and criticized having to clean the entrances to their stores and buildings.
Even several schools have launched a campaign to put up posters with the slogans “animals yes, poop no” or “our clean neighborhood”, which had their peak of extreme dirtiness during the week of bonfires in which, according to Alicante Clean, “the “They broke all records.
“In Hogueras it was horrible, a total lack of control of the land. The holidays ended and, just when all the international tourism was starting to arrive, the containers moved and the town filled up with garbage bags,” laments Paloma Valverde, who assures that there is also a significant lack of information about the new resources that the city council is implementing, such as the new containers for organic materials that are only open four hours a day to avoid odors, but which are forced by some uncivil citizens.
Sources from the Alicante City Council explain to elDiario.es that the cleaning service has established schedules and that there is a regular complaints service to act against “specific cases and proceed to clean them”. The same sources explain that reinforcement is expected in the summer, when the city’s population explodes due to the arrival of tourists. “We are in a period of adaptation of the contract and in a process of renewing the containers”, they affirm, while defending that the work is being done progressively with the increase of means and new sweeping and blowing machines.
In this sense, the cost of the service for the residents of Alicante has increased by four million euros to 42. As in all tourist municipalities, the costs of cleaning and adaptation are borne by the municipality through taxes, since in the Valencian Community the PP government refuses to establish a tourist tax so that visitors collaborate in maintaining decent services. In fact, Alicante, also governed by the PP, has opposed the incorporation of the tourist tax to reduce the burden on residents and further improve the service.
Criticism about cleanliness in Alicante is not new and has not been without controversy. Enrique Ortiz, one of the businessmen confessed and convicted of illegal financing of the PP of the Valencian Community, won the cleaning contract for Alicante in 2001 with Luis Díaz Alperi also convicted of corruption as mayor. Ortiz renewed the management of the service in 2013 under the command of Sonia Castedo and maintained it until the last competition held last year. Since September 2023, UTE Netial (FCC and PreZero) has managed the cleaning of the second city of the Valencian Community and the tenth in Spain.
The PSPV of Alicante recently uploaded a video in which it focuses on the situation of cleaning in Alicante. In this sense, the socialist spokesperson Ana Barceló emphasized the problems of collection and dirt and their impact on the citizens of Alicante. “We are giving a disastrous international image, of apathy, negligence and abandonment that does not correspond to the importance of this city”, criticizes Barceló. “The situation is very worrying, both for tourists and residents, because there are problems of insalubrity. I will not tell you what the illegal dumps look like”, he adds.
Recently, the Compromís coalition also demanded greater control over waste procurement with an initiative in plenary session so that, among other proposals, staff should be increased or subject to more inspections.
