Aigua és Vida has criticized that Agbar and the Metropolitan Area of ??Barcelona (AMB) have “paved” the way to expand the private water business in Ripollet and Molins de Rei.
The organization has thus valued the fact that the Metropolitan Council of the AMB will approve this Tuesday the creation of a mixed transfer commission so that the supply service in Ripollet and Molins de Rei will be transferred to the AMB itself.
For Aigua es Vida, this means “one more step” to integrate Ripollet and Molins into the mixed company Aigües de Barcelona, ??controlled by Agbar.
The organization has highlighted that until now the only study carried out to study which is the best management option analyzed the public.
In this sense, he recalled that if the bet is indirect management, it is necessary to first create a study commission to determine the best form of management, as indicated in the Regulation of Works, Activities and Services of local entities (ROAS). .
For Aigua es Vida, this new step has been possible in the new configuration of the Consell Metropolità and the affected municipalities, where the PSC won the last elections. This “has unstuck Agbar’s attempts to expand its business,” the organization said.
It recognizes that, at this time, there are no majorities to promote metropolitan public management and that is why it has assessed that the creation of the transfer commission is the first step for Agbar to absorb the drinking water service in Ripollet and Molins de Rei.
The conflict comes from a 2020 ruling, which stated that the responsibility for the drinking water supply of metropolitan municipalities lies with the AMB. This stopped the project of the Ripollet City Council, then governed by Decidim, to remunicipalize water management.
In fact, the Ripoll City council filed an administrative dispute, which is still ongoing, against the inactivity of the AMB, with the desire to unblock the negotiations.
