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Vitoria-Gasteiz can boast many things. Of gastronomylandscapes or heritageto quote only a few examples. If something has presumed, however, in recent years the Basque capital is from Green areas. Its city council ensures that the city has 42 m2 of landscaped areas by each inhabitant, allowing it to be sneaking often in The Top 10 of the greatest cities in the country and even won the title of European Green Capital. Now its gardeners have strike and that vast vegetation cover has become a problem.
The parks have gone from being a reason for pride to a headache.
Vitoria, “Green Capital”. With the global warming Converted into the subject of priority (and recurring) discussion, more and more cities They choose to apply a “green” logic when planning their urban planning. It occurs both in Spain and in other countries, but few cities have taken a step as determined as Vitoria. In Your website The Basque City Council presumes to have 42 square meters of green areas for each neighbor, 171 kilometers of bike lanes, 115,000 trees in streets and parks and a green ring of 33 kilometers with hectares Field.
The bet has not gone badly and the city It usually sneaks in The highest of the national top 10 of green cities. The effort has been accompanied in addition to some important international recognitions: the European Green Capital 2012, the Green Ciudad Global 2019 and the Biosphere Responsible Tourism certification. So much so that the city presumes being a “Green Capital”.
And the strike arrived. For A few months However, the residents of Vitoria look at that vast green area, which include parks and gardens, but also roundabouts, gutters, alcorques and curbs with some concern. And the reason is very simple: professionals who are in charge of their care are on strike. At the end of March, the Envier Company Committee, the hire of the maintenance of the green areas of the municipality, He summoned a strike for Demand improvements labor.
“Their working conditions are absolutely precarious, with salaries that barely reach the minimum interprofession He warned In March, the ELA union on the situation of the 85 employees affected by Envise.
The first day of strike the tracking has already been around 90%, according to the workers, and the City Council has found that its municipal gardeners template It falls short to assume the management of all parks and gardens.
“It is a risk”. Three months later and despite the Mediation attempts Among the parts involved, the gardener strike is still underway in Vitoria to desperate the authorities and neighbors. Its acts of fact were noticed very soon. Without pruning, irrigation or stubble withdrawal, the vegetation of the city has faded … with all its consequences. In May Antena3 He informed Already with grown weeds, plants more than a meter high in the gardens, green on the sidewalks and even the appearance of insects, including ticks and mosquitoes.
“The presence of fleas and ticks begins to be common and is a health risk,” Recognize to Basque chronicle Rafa Busto, member of the ELA union. To the weed, the carelessness of the parks and the risk of bites is also added another handicap: a much harder year than usual for the allergic to the pollen. After three months of strike, the City Council has also found that the news has climbed nationally and Furibunda complaints of its citizens.
“Threatens lives”. The situation has reached such a point that a few days ago the Basque Government ordered to the gardeners who guarantee minimum care of the green areas. The decree has served to The seasons come back to the parks of Vitoria, but has further walked the spirits. The syndiacts already They have warned that will resort to an order that, they insist, “condition the strike”; and the reports of the transport and firefighters service in which the Executive has been supported to make its decision stands out for its forcefulness, warning of serious risks.
“The lack of clearing threatens lives, properties, infrastructure and public health, in addition to overflowing emergency services,” They warn Firefighters in their analysis. In a similar line, the traffic service warned that in some areas of Vitoria the vegetation has been felt so much that it has gained height that prevents traffic or traffic light signals.
More vegetation, many more flowers. Not all the effects of the strike are negative or all see them with the same eyes. The rains and the fact that the bushes grow at ease has led certain areas of Vitoria to have seen a floral explosion, to the joy of botanists and biologists. “The flowers that we previously considered very rare, today we found them almost in any split”, Point out Gorka Belamendia, of the Center for Environmental Studies, in the SER.
“If plants are allowed to develop, biodiversity is multiplied: insects and invertebrates especially,” coincides in The country Pello Urrutia, president of the Alavés de la Nature Institute (Ian). Irene Zúñiga, doctor in urban architecture, even He went further When assessing the effects of the strike: “All botany schools should be here, taking out inventory.”
Images | RDA SUISSE (Flickr), Euskadi.eus and Mariya Prokopyuk (Flickr)
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