Quite apart from the fact that the Mayor of Nerja is still personally facing judiciary retribution over the illegal dump in Río de Miel, yet he still has another headache looming.
This time, however, it’s not a person problem but one that the Nerja Town Hal has to confront: The Central Government is still demanding 5-million euros from the municipal coffers over the sewage-treatment plant.
The said installations have been in operation since 2020 but since then the Ministerio para La Transición Ecológica has been demanding the money for in exchange for handing over the sewage-treatment plant to municipal ownership.
During several Plenary Meetings of the Town Council since 2020 they have unanimously rejected out of hand the demand, which will increase to 14.8m euros over the next 25 years.
The governing party (PP), which holds an absolute majority, launched an administrative reclamation against this Central-Government demand for dosh, which will have to be settled in court under Civil Law, explained Mayor José Alberto Armijo.
This latest flurry of interest was that the fee for water usage for 2025 was published in the State Gazette (Boletín Oficial del Estado or BOE). The Mayor responded with, “The Government of Spain intends to force Los Nerjareños and Mareños pay 5.4m euros, which is something that no other citizen of the Province of Málaga has had to do.”
Basically, the sum demanded is the amortisation of investment costs, operating and maintenance expenses of the Nerja wastewater treatment plant facilities for 2025. The 5.4m euros corresponds to 1.98m euros for 2025 and 3.40m for 2024.
Add to this, another 9.45m euros for the amortisation of the plant over the next 25 years. The total cost of building the wastewater treatment plant of 26,647,822 euros of which 15.3m came from the EU.
Back in October 2021, the plant was signed over to the Town Hall and since then it is being run by the Tragsa water utility company. However, although signed the hand over didn’t take place on the advice of the Abogacía del Estado (State Attorney) because such a transfer is not contemplated in Article 124 from the Ley de Aguas concerning the running of Works of Public Interest by local entities.
In other words, it all went south, and both administrations started scratching each other’s eyes out but in the meantime, somebody has to run the plant so Tragsa, which is a publicly owned company, which has 1-year contracts (worth 2.2m euros) until it is sorted.
(News: Nerja, Axarquia, Costa del Sol, Malaga, Andalucia)
Keywords: Sewage-Treatment Plant, Central Government, EU Funding, Tragsa, Town Hall, Money Owed
news, andalucia, malaga, costa del sol, axarquia, nerja, sewage-treatment plant, central government, eu funding, tragsa, town hall, money owed