In February, the Town Hall approved the amendment of the bylaws governing sewerage and drinking water supply. This measure, they stressed, is part of the mandatory annual update of the bylaws relating to both services, based on the CPI (Consumer Price Index), a process which had only occurred once since 2010 (in 2022). According to the Executive, this represents an “important commitment to improving both services”. It will be carried out through the public company Acosol, which operates under the Association of Municipalities of the Western Costa del Sol, and includes the implementation of digitalisation through remote meter reading (designed to facilitate consumption management); improved customer service with new facilities in Las Lagunas –already completed– and a customer service point in Mijas Pueblo.

 

“The proposal is to adapt the tariff in the bylaw to the CPI. In compliance with this, it would come into force on the 1st of July. Therefore, July and August will be the first time that the bill is paid every two months, and this represents an average monthly increase of two euros for every household in the municipality of Mijas”, said the councillor for Economy and Finance, Mario Bravo (PP). 

This means a 19% increase in the water bill, Bravo pointed out, but he assured that Acosol will implement various improvements, such as replacing a third of the current meters with remote management systems, opening new customer service points, and the construction of a drinking water supply main to Mijas Pueblo, a project expected to be carried out in different phases with a budget exceeding 13 million euros. The opposition did not interpret it the same way, claiming that the increase is disproportionate. PSOE councillor Josele González said that “this increase, this blow to the water bills of Mijas residents, is incomprehensible. If Acosol has such losses, if the Mijas Town Hall is causing so many problems in paying for the structure, which is what we are talking about: paying for the organisation, not for works or investments, then they should hand over the keys to water management to the Town Hall”.

 

Obligation

The government team insisted that this is a mandatory annual update of the bylaws based on the CPI, something that has only happened once since 2010, in 2022. Vox councillor Francisco Jerez stated that “it is a political, moral and institutional responsibility and obligation to comply with what others signed. We don’t like it, but there is no other choice. They talk about a ‘blow’; if this is a ‘blow’ now, then back in 2022, it was a ‘slashing’”.

 

The spokesperson for Ciudadanos, José Carlos Martín, maintained that the increase in the water bill is inexplicable: “Explain to us how you can say the increase is 19%, when going from 0.24 to 0.49, which is pure mathematics, there is not a 19% increase, but a 104% increase. This 20% increase is not to improve any infrastructure, it is to improve, in my view, the day-to-day running of Acosol or its bottom line. This is a management mandate; if they lose money, then let them lose it”.

 

Martín also lamented that water prices are being increased when Juan Carlos Maldonado, during his time as mayor, prevented them from rising. To this, the current PMP councillor replied that “in this case it is not a tax, it is a fee, stemming from a management mandate that this council entered into at the time to pay suppliers. Obviously, this entails an obligation and a commitment by this Town Hall within that mandate to carry out an annual CPI review, which has not been applied annually and which I did not apply during my term”.

The mayoress of Mijas, Ana Mata (PP), closed the debate on the drinking water supply, a point that was approved with the opposition against it. The mayoress concluded by saying that “if the commitment is to update the water rate in line with the CPI, then we must do so. We cannot tell residents, because we are in an election period, that we will leave the water rate as it is because it doesn’t suit us now, only for everything to hit them at once later, as we are perhaps accustomed to under another management model currently seen in the Spanish Government”.  

Sewerage

With regard to the amendment of the regulatory bylaw for sewerage, the municipal corporation maintained the same arguments and voting positions. The opposition criticised the increase in the fee, while the government team defended the effort Acosol will make to implement this service more widely, allowing for the connection of homes that are currently not linked to the network.

Furthermore, according to a press release, more advanced management of the sewerage network and storm drains is planned to prevent blockages, particularly during the first rains of the season.

Responsibility

“I believe it has been made sufficiently clear that what we are presenting today is the result of management that took place in 2010, when this government team was not in power, but you were. Furthermore, in 2022, a 10% increase was introduced which you voted for, committing yourselves and all Mijas residents to comply with a document. In the responsibility of governing, there are parties and then there are parties, and you are already revealing your true colours in many places”, stressed the mayoress.

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