In the village of Castillo de Tajarja (Alhama) there are times that you can’t have your window open for the stench of the local pig farm.

Everybody likes their Jamón Serrano however…

The teaming population of the unfortunate village, all 267 of them, have been putting up with the ‘whiff’ coming from an open cesspit – in the winter you can hide behind closed windows when a north wind blows, but in the summer…

Naturally, they have not suffered in silence but have been gathering in the village square to make a stink about the stink. (Make a stink = protest energetically). After, they claim, you put the washing out to dry everything becomes impregnated with the stench. Even the local doctor has filed a report about the insalubrious situation.

Administratively, Tajarja comes under Chimeneas, whose Town Council has just unanimously passed a bylaw, which gives the pig-farm owner just 15 days to contest a fine heading his way. The said bylaw states that you cannot have an open cesspit within two kilometres of an urban area. The farm owner would need to dump the slurry and plough it under within 24 hours.

Yet the Mayor of Chimeneas and the First Councillor of Tajarja want to find a solution where nobody loses out; not the locals or the local business owner concerned.

The pig-farm manager, Salvador Salvatierre, denies the existence of the ‘smell,’ and states that the farm is two kilometres from the urban area and has all the necessary paperwork and permits. He apologies to the villagers if he has ‘upset them in any way.’

However, the villagers claim that he is dumping the slurry just 200 metres from the village. The also point out that the open cesspit is ‘brimming.’

(News: Tajarja, Poniente de Granada, Andalucia)