“We do not want to sanction, only raise awareness, but it is clear that the notice of fines, of up to 3,000 euros, that we have been implementing for years do not end the pressing problem of lack of civility, because we continue to see daily how belongings and debris are deposited in streets and on rural roads,” says Juan Delgado, Councilor for Works among other areas of the Güímar City Council.
For years the municipality has been suffering from illegal deposits in all areas, from the most central neighborhoods of the town (Fátima or San Juan) to the most remote areas of Agache, both in the midlands and on the coast. There is also another sensitive area: El Socorro and the surroundings of Malpaís, just very close to the Industrial Estate clean point.
Not only Güímar suffers from this scourge of vandalism, but Candelaria has already joined this awareness and sanctions campaign, just as Arafo did in his day. As the mayor of Candelaria, Mari Brito, recognized, “the Valley has become a large landfill.”
Delgado comments with discouragement that “I have filled the municipality with signs warning of fines, but there are those who even remove the sign from the container and leave their debris or belongings outside, as is happening in a lot that has been given to us in El Socorro and that I have had to fence it so that it does not continue to be a landfill, but even so they continue to leave garbage,” says the councilor.
“For us the biggest problem – he continues – is raising people’s awareness, never to report or punish”, remembering that “the Government Delegation does not allow us to install security cameras nor do the surveillance companies with which we have spoken see it as viable can limit the problem,” he says.
Fines
However, the Güímar City Council, through the Security Department, has already informed citizens that offenders who do not respect the rules and civic coexistence and engage in waste deposits and other garbage are being severely punished. in places not authorized for it and thus dirtying the municipality.
The Local Police, with the collaboration of citizens, works to report and punish this type of behavior and put an end to a wave of infractions that are repeated by numerous unconscious people. “We invite reflection and awareness to, together, ensure that these behaviors are not repeated and to do so, offenders will be punished,” the council states.
Juan Delgado: “The Polígono is a total abandonment”
The Güímar Valley not only faces the uncivil attitude of abandoning belongings, debris and garbage outside the places designated for this, even having a clean point. It has also faced, for 10 years, the neglect of the Industrial Estate that since that date has been shared by the three town councils, unable to agree on its maintenance. “The Polígono is a total abandonment, I don’t know why in ten years we have not come to an agreement, something that now seems to be on track with the Cabildo,” says Juan Delgado, who recognizes that “Güímar’s part, it is true, is the more cared for, perhaps because it is the smallest.”
