Europe’s largest shantytown lies half an hour from the city center of Madrid and has been without power for two years. Some of the 8,000 or so residents of Cañada Real have been without electricity for two whole years since October 2020. Around 4,000 people have been affected by the situation. These people cannot run their air conditioner or fans in the heat waves or heat their homes in the middle of winter.

Source: COPE/YouTube

Now, exactly two years later, not enough has changed. The sector of the town continues without electricity, and with winter looming, they fear what will happen if they go for their third cold season without power.

In January 2021 Filomena hit Madrid with the heaviest snow in 50 years, and water pipes were frozen. Then this summer went down as Spain’s hottest summer since 1961. Throughout all of this, water supplies to Cañada Real failed.

Although residents have figured out how to live in these horrible conditions, it is not sustainable or fair. Those who can have bought generators and other heat or cooling machinery, but those who can’t afford them have suffered even more. The Guardian reported that during the pandemic, children in the town had to hike up the hill where they could get half-decent mobile coverage. Other children have stopped going to school because they could not stand the bullying about their hygiene.

In December 2020, a group of UN experts warned the Spanish government that the lack of electricity violates the children’s right to adequate housing. They also noted that it was “having a very serious effect on their rights to health, food, water, sanitation, and education.”

The regional government had blamed the lack of power on illegal cannabis farms in the area that crash the electricity supplies.

Everyone deserves a right to safe drinking water and electricity to live. We hope that the Spanish government will finally step in after two years and help their citizens in need.

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