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Eugenio Cabezas
Axarquía
Thursday, 20 February 2025, 19:17
The Mancomunidad association of town halls in the Axarquía on the eastern side of Malaga province and its public water company Axaragua, approved on Wednesday 19 February a rise in water rates paid by 14 of the 31 municipalities in the area. Amendments presented by the socialist PSOE and right-wing Vox political parties were rejected.
The new rates entail an increase of 35.29 per cent in the water supply paid by the fourteen municipalities that receive their drinking water from the El Trapiche treatment plant in Vélez-Málaga, and 27.12 per cent in the case of treatment.
The municipalities affected are: Almáchar, Benamargosa, Benamocarra, El Borge, Comares, Cútar, Iznate, Macharaviaya, Moclinejo, Rincón de la Victoria, Vélez-Málaga, Totalán, Algarrobo and Torrox, which together have a population of around 180,000 inhabitants, which rises to 230,000 in the summer season. In the case of wastewater treatment, the municipalities affected are Vélez-Málaga, Benamocarra, Rincón de la Victoria, Torrox and Algarrobo.
These new rates have been approved with the votes in favour of the four-party government team of the Partido Popular (PP), the GIPMTM (Independent Torre del Mar party which is in coalition with the PP in Vélez-Málaga), Por Mi Pueblo and Andalucía por Sí, with the rejection of PSOE and the abstention of Izquierda Unida (IU).
The president of the Mancomunidad and Axaragua, Jorge Martín (PP), already defended last November, when this increase was initially approved, the need for these increases, since the rates for supply has not been revised since 2008 and that of treatment since 2018. "Either it is approved or the company is going to close," he said at the time. The debt carried by Axaragua is around 9.1 million euros, according to technical documentation to which SUR has had access.
These increases in water rates, from 0.3274 to 0.4429 euros per cubic metre in the case of water supply and from 0.4702 to 0.5977 in the case of sewerage, will come into effect immediately. However, this does not mean that residents will immediately pay these increases in their water and sewerage bills, as it will now be up to each of the affected councils to decide whether or not to pass them on to end users. However, the technical reports state that, for an average consumption of ten cubic metres per month per household, the increase would be 1.44 euros per month.
Martín explained that the rise is being implemented to compensate for increases in the costs of electricity, salaries and materials used to treat water from La Viñuela reservoir to make it drinkable and for the four waste water treatment plants.
Martin stressed that the rise in costs and, therefore, the debt of Axaragua, has been "brutal" in the last three years, after the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Last year an increase in the tariffs for water supply was already approved to cover the extra cost of water being brought from Malaga city due to the then minimal reserves in La Viñuela, when three million euros were paid between the 14 municipalities.
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