No water!

We have a mains water supply, but have always had problems with the low pressure or no water. Benamaurel ayuntamiento have just re-laid water mains near our property and we stupidly thought this would solve our problem!! For approx 2 weeks our supply was fairly constant and then (about 5 weeks ago) the pipes dried up. We have been into the council several times and put letters in, (to which we don't even get e reply). We've looked for signs of leaks and are pretty sure that drinking water isn't being poured onto fields-that tends to happen in the summer!! Other people in the area don't seem to have a problem.

I suppose at this point I should say that our cave house is higher than all other houses supplied.

What I want to find out is : Do we have any rights or do you know where I can find out?

Do you know of a good local solicitor (who speaks good English-makes it a lot easier to explain all the ins and outs)? Maybe someone who has dealt with water disputes before.

We are now very desperate. HELP

HAPPY NEW YEAR

LA

Before resorting to lawyers why not find out who is in charge of water supply and attemt a face to face meeting,

Sorry to hear of your problems, I have used Maria in Caniles. She was very helpful, you will need an interpreter though unless her English has improved.
When you took the letters into the Ayumiento did you get them date stamped, they then have technically 2 weeks to look into it and get a reply to you.
We have a problem with the roadleading to our cave, and have been waiting along time to get it resurfaced. Most of our letters even stamped have not had the desired response.
Hope you get it sorted soon.

we had a problem last year with the water being cut off and took letter after letter in and had them stamped but to no avail so instead of using a lawyer we sent a mail to the government offices in madrid (after getting it stamped and signed by the mayor) and addressed it to the minister for the enviroment and after the second letter a plumber came up to our property when we had no water and found out a farmer had been turning it off to water his fields, since then no problems, the odd occasion overnight but i can live with that.

I bet you´re desperate - no water must be really difficult. Have you registered with the ayuntamiento for your water supply and pay the water charge? If you have done so, I would think they should be talking to you and trying to sort it out. We didn´t get round to registering our cave for water (or whatever the correctterm is), but when the underground supply pipe burst it spurred us on, and the pipe was fixed the same day. We then had a blockage in the supply pipe which was sorted out the morning I phoned. Maybe other town halls are harder to deal with?
Anyway, good luck!

We never had a problem for the first couple of years, but in the last four our pressure has dropped dramatically and sometimes nothing at all.
I must have been to the Ayuntemiento 20 times. (Benamaurel).
The girl always calls the plumber, and assures us it will be sorted. Unfortunately in line wimany utilities people he tells us what we want to hear and does nothing. The farmers are stealing/diverting the water and not re directing it. I have put this to him he says no and shrugs his shoulders.
We have no chance. No matter who you write to, who you call it wont be fixed. They are all related, the farmers come first, Spanish second and unfortunately we are miles down the pecking order when asking and getting help.
Finally I gave in, I got someone to install an electric water pump and a tank and bingo, we have water. I wish I had done it years ago. We shouldn´t have to, but we choose to live here.
If you decide to go down the route I took let me know and I will give you the names of those who did the work for me...........very reasonably priced.

Just had my water bill of £175 drop on my mat. That's a lot. Oxfam can
supply a whole African village for just £2 a month: time to change supplier
I think.

You could try Victorio la, his Spanglish is very good. Not got a number for him, but I'm sure someone else on here does. He's local'ish too.

I think thats Peters joke of the day.

Ponderosa wrote:Just had my water bill of £175 drop on my mat. That's a lot. Oxfam can
supply a whole African village for just £2 a month: time to change supplier
I think.

2euros a month if you want to walk for days and have muddy water, hmmmmm i would rather pay my bill of 4 euros a year

I hear this place is going cheap and as a bonus it has no history of frozen pipes! In fact, it has no history of pipes whatsoever. The water rates are a bargain though.

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Very funny, but not that far from the truth!!

I think Peter was referring to an OXFAM advert which asks 'you' to make a donation of £2.00 per month to help finance their campaign to lay pipes and instal pumps to bring fresh water to villages in Africa.