Goodbye to the Fountain

The fountain on top of the Paseo del Altillo bars in Almuñécar has always been problematic; it constantly leaked water into the bars below.

Consequently, the fountain itself has been hooked out, although the sculpture that sat it in the middle of it will remain. Work is going ahead to waterproof the whole area where the fountain stood.

Two attempts were made to waterproof this area of the paseo under the fountain; once when it was actually built, and then again at the beginning of 2011, but to no avail. In the opinion of the Councillor for Public Works, José Manuel Fernández, both the original building work and the attempt made in 2011 were both pretty much botched up (badly executed). He was a little more diplomatic about it, qualifying the task as not having “been completed in the best conditions.”

He pointed out that the company hired to build the fountain was hired by the previous administration (under Benavides) as was the company that was hired to fix it, but in both cases the problem was not solved meaning that the job was not carried out adequately.

This time, however, it is the Maintenance Department of the Town Hall that is carrying out the job, to fix the problem once and for all – which shouldn’t be too hard as the offending fountain has been removed.

However, it has been necessary to pull up all the paving stones and “weld” the waterproofing material (tar paper) together to make sure that rainwater will not cause any problems, either.

In fact, it has been during this last task that the work crew discovered that the waterproofing sheets had not been joined and that in places, no waterproofing has been laid at all.

Work should be concluded within ten days.

(News: Almunecar, Costa tropical, Granada, Andalucia)