“With a problem as basic as having water on the tap in the 21st century, what the local government can’t do is think it’s in the opposition and blame the opposition.”
The Delegate of the Government, Sabrina Moh, in the program El Inicio de Televisión Melilla, has referred to the continuous water cuts that our city is suffering and the management that the Executive of the Autonomous City is doing. During the interview, he lamented that the popular are trying to deceive the citizenry after being unable to provide solutions to these cuts.
“They promised mineral water on the tap and we have less water than ever,” he lamented, recalling that the PP already knew the powers and the supply situation when it returned to power in 2023, after 20 years of government. “They knew how the system worked, but now that they govern they blame the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation (CHG). You can’t govern by throwing balls out,” he said.
The head of the Government Delegation has also criticized the lack of coherence of the current local executive, noting that, when the PP was in opposition, it constantly demanded the dismissal of the former Minister of the Environment. “Either right now they have a manifest incompetence and they are not able to give water to the Melillense citizens or, when they asked for the cessation of the former Councillor demanding responsibilities, they were deceiving the citizens,” he argued.
“It cannot be that, when they are in opposition, they demand something from the City Government and when they are in the City and that competition is theirs, they accuse the CHG,” he said.
Sabrina Moh has stressed that the PP is not in the opposition but in the government: “The citizens have put them there to fix the problems and if they don’t know how to fix them, maybe they have to resign or they have to stop cheating the citizens.”
30 million investment
Moh recalled that the Government of Spain has carried out an investment of 30 million euros for the improvement of water infrastructure and has maintained a constant collaboration with the Autonomous City with the different governments that have taken place in recent decades.
“When you have problems with the CHG, with the Government Delegation, with all the Ministries… Maybe we are not all the others, maybe we are not all bad and the problem is yours,” he said and made reference to the President of Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivir, who is also from the PP and, nevertheless, reaches understandings with the Government Delegation.
At this point, Moh has pointed out that dialogue is necessary to fix the problems of the citizens, as the local government of Ceuta does and has shown his doubts that this is the goal of the people in our city, which is what they dedicate themselves to “continue to maintain the privilege of their own and to continue entertaining him with promises that never come.”
“They have been promising an Olympic swimming pool for 20 years that never comes. The PP always says ‘let’s do’, while the PSOE can say ‘we have done’, and there is the University Hospital as proof”, he countered.
Three years without water?
During the television interview, Moh has censored that the local government is trying to divert attention from its responsibility by claiming that it received the plant in lamas conditions and recalled that the City and the CHG reached an agreement and “a document was signed where it was found that the facilities were in good condition,” he said.
The Delegate stressed that if there has been a subsequent deterioration in the infrastructure, the responsibility lies with those who currently manage it. “They will have to see how they are managing it and when they have stopped monitoring,” he said.
Regarding the recent statements of the local president assuring that the water problem will have been solved within three years, the head of the delegation asked the PP if what they are saying to the citizens is that it is until three years from now they will not be able to have water.
“Are you telling the people of Melilla that they won’t have water for three years? Is it because in two years there are elections and they will promise the same thing again?”
“I am convinced that in three years’ time there will be water, but because there has to be a change of government in 2027, because we know some that what we promise when we are in opposition, we take it as a mandate when we are in government,” he said.
Lack of PP forecast
In relation to the possible cession of the Adelfas marsh, Moh has made it clear that “you cannot ask for an agreement by insulting, without sitting down to speak and finding out about the request by the press.”
The Delegate has described as “unserious” the way in which the local government raises issues of such importance. “First they give a press conference and then, if anything, they send a letter. That is not a responsible way to govern or seek agreements,” he said.
For the Delegate, if the Autonomous City really has an interest in assuming the management of the swamp or any other competence, it must sit at the table with a clear proposal and dialogue with technical and political rigor. “We have to contrast the reports, the approaches, see if it is viable or not, and then we can reach real consensus,” he said.
Otherwise, he warned, the only thing he wants “is to tighten, because it seems that in that tension and in that continuous confrontation they get some political gain”.
In this regard, the Government Delegate has stressed that it is not possible to govern by improvising. “You can’t do the work of a funeral home without planning a place to look after people who die. That’s lack of planning, lack of organization, lack of foresight and lack of projects, and the same goes for water,” he said.
Moh has given other examples of this mismanagement, such as the late arrival of textbooks or conciliation. “It’s a lack of planning, it’s a lack of projects and it’s a lack of interest, because they deal in other things, in large projects,” he said, referring to the fact that 20 members of the Imbroda Government traveled, in charge of the public treasury to Andalusia, to sign an agreement with the Board and the only result is that the Artificial Intelligence Degree instead of being taught at the Melilla Campus of the University of Granada is going to be taught at the private university.