FREE COPY THE NEWSPAPER FOR An executive SOUTHERN SPAIN mind teaching Official market leader Audited by PGD/OJD equality January 5th to 11th 2018 www.surinenglish.com From Lillehammer to Seville, Brita Hetkoen News 2 Food & Drink 47 paves the way for Comment 26 My Home 49 Lifestyle 28 Sport 53 women among the What To Do 42 Classified 56 37 62 business elite P28 in English Health & Beauty Pastimes Employment grew faster in Malaga than anywhere else in Spain in 2017 During the last 12 months, the number of people paying into the social security system increased 5.2% Malaga was the Spanish province a quarter of the 100,000 extra in An- where employment increased the dalucía overall. The number of reg- most in 2017, according to official istered unemployed in Malaga prov- figures released on Wednesday. The ince ended the year on 157,573, A REGAL END TO THE HOLIDAYS province saw an increase of 28,486 roughly the same figure as 2009, people paying into the social secu- just ahead of the worst years of the rity system through work, just over global economic crisis. P21 Children all over Spain prepare for the visit tonight of the Three Kings Sewage treatment systems bearing gifts and plenty of sweets P18&33 on the Costa suffer under P2&3 the weight of wet wipes The Wise Men pay an early visit to a local district in Malaga. :: EDUARDO NIETO Protests increase over use of Archidona prison as an immigrant centre after an Algerian inmate was found hanging where he was being held P6 Government closes in on holiday rental tax fraud as law will oblige platforms such as Airbnb to give details of property owners to Hacienda P16 Traditional food festivals in store for 2018. The province celebrates its gastronomical heritage all year round P47&48 22222222 January 5th to 11th 2018 NEWS SUR IN ENGLISH Wet wipes are causing big problems for the sewage treatment system paigns to raise awareness of this THE DAMAGE CAUSED wipes. It can’t deal with them be- As a result, in the pumping and problem, but they have had little BY WET WIPES, IN cause they are made with textile treatment stations in Malaga prov- result because many still use the FIGURES fibres which form a skein, and this ince an average of 400 tonnes of FRANCISCO lavatory as a rubbish bin without is impossible to undo; as well as rubbish has to be removed every JIMÉNEZ realising, or maybe not caring, that blocking the pipes they also break month; of this more than 90 per these products do not disappear by the equipment. Wet wipes are now cent contains wet wipes. [email protected] magic when the chain is pulled. 400 used in many homes, and families In addition to this, some wet Quite the contrary, in fact: they tonnes of rubbish a month are are misled by manufacturers who wipes disposed of down the toilet Every month in Malaga accumulate into an enormous mass removed from the pumping claim they are biodegradable. Some never reach the plant; they accu- which obstructs the downpipes of and treatment plants in the even say on the label that they can mulate in the pipes and when it province 400 tonnes blocks of apartments and, once in province, and more than 90 per be disposed of down the lavatory rains the waste becomes tangled of rubbish have to be the outside pipes, the manholes, col- cent are wet wipes. In addition with no problem. up in the drains, collectors and lectors and pumping and treatment to this figure, others have to be spillways. Everyone knows what removed from the systems as well. They cause the removed from apartment Slow decomposition happens then: unpleasant smells pipes because it equipment to break down on a regu- blocks by specialist companies, Technically, yes, they do decom- and pools of sewage coming from lar basis, and when that happens and some end up in the pipes pose when they come into contact the drains and flowing into the riv- causes blockages and waste ends up flowing into rivers, and come out through the spill- with the water but it takes about ers, streams or directly into the sewage overflows streams or directly into the sea ways when the pipes cannot two weeks for them to do so, while sea, because the equipment just through the spillways. The problem cope with the increased flow ordinary toilet paper degrades in can’t cope. is especially serious on rainy days resulting from rainfall or a matter of hours. This was dem- “It doesn’t matter how much we MALAGA. Cotton buds, tampons, because in most towns the rainwater breakdowns. onstrated recently in a laboratory invest in technology to try to filter condoms, bits of food, used oil, and waste use the same pipes and test carried out by the Emasa mu- wet wipes, or how many awareness nappies... people throw a wide va- these end up overflowing. nicipal water company in Malaga: campaigns are carried out, while riety of things down the lavatory, The problem of cotton buds and it subjected wet wipes, moist toi- they continue to be sold as if they but what is causing the biggest other personal hygiene products 10-18% let paper and conventional toilet were biodegradable and people keep headaches for the people who look is nothing new. In fact, the sani- is the extra cost of maintenance paper to constant movement and throwing them down the toilet after our sewage pipes are wet tation companies have learned to and repairs which are necessary compared how long it took them there is nothing we can do about wipes; originally designed to be live with them by introducing new due to the presence of wet wipes to decompose. it,” says Emasa’s director of Main- used for babies in recent years they equipment. However, what the in the network, according to the Bearing in mind that it takes up tenance and Treatment, Concepción have commonly been used by the system can’t cope with, and what Spanish Association of Water to 48 hours from the time the cis- Fernández Cotrina, resignedly. whole family. causes the most frequent prob- Supplies and Sanitation (AEAS). tern is flushed to the arrival of the She says wet wipes have become There have been numerous cam- lems, is the daily avalanche of wet Nationally, the figure is around waste at the treatment plant, it is the most serious problem for the 200 million euros. obvious that this is not long system, even the ones which are enough for the material to degrade. degradable, because when they de- A tangle of wet wipes removed from the downpipe of a block of apartments. :: SUR A blocked pump at the Rincón de la Victoria pumping station. :: SUR Domestic system Sediment accumulation Treatment cycle When the wipes and Given their high absorption It takes a maximum of 48 other solid waste are wipes tend to get caught on hours for items thrown flushed down the toilet any rough surfaces inside down the toilet to arrive at they causes blockages pipes or stuck in those with- the sewage plant, but wet in the building’s pipes out a steep incline and the wipes take two weeks to and collectors. layers accumulate. 48decompose. January 5th to 11th 2018 3 SUR IN ENGLISH NEWS compose their particles are scat- down the lavatory’. However, the tered about and they create micro- magnitude of the problem is multi- Laboratory tests show plastics which end up in the sea A bad habit that is good for plied in places like Malaga, where it with no type of filter. rarely rains and, when it does, it is that the majority of wet “We’re not trying to stop them drain-cleaning companies torrential, so that the wet wipes wipes take two weeks to being sold, we just want the peo- which for months have remained decompose ple who use them to throw them sedimented in the pipes are pushed into the rubbish bin, not down the :: F. JIMÉNEZ pany benefits financially from all to the pumping stations (which in lavatory,” says Concepción, as she MALAGA. “When we started in this work, he insists that they al- turn push the waste water to the treat- shows us how in just 24 hours a 1999 we were one of only three ways tell people to throw wet ment plants), causing problems in extra pressure on human and tech- container which can hold eight cu- companies of this type. Now there wipes into the rubbish bin, not pumps and filters. nical resources, not to mention the bic metres has been filled with wet are 25 in this province but we have down the toilet. “Obviously it “When there is a blockage the ma- environmental damage caused, but wipes removed from the Guadal- even more work than we did then, would be good for us if they threw chine stops operating, the water level the AEAS Spanish Water Supply and horce treatment plant. mainly because people’s pipes keep even more away like that, but we rises and the drains overflow into the Sewage Association calculates that “This is a normal day. When it getting blocked by wet wipes.” honestly tell them not to do it. streets, streams or onto the beach,” when people throw rubbish down rains, it is much worse. One con- Enrique Godoy, the head of When we are called out by a com- explains Jorge Gil, head of the collec- the toilet it increases the treatment tainer after another,” says an em- Desatoros Malaga, describes per- munity of owners we always ex- tor drains department at the Acosol costs by between ten and 18 per cent, ployee, briefly removing the mask fectly the situation caused by plain the problems that wet wipes water company, which is part of the which is about 200 million euros a he has to wear because of the stench people throwing wet wipes cause and we even put up posters, Mancomunidad de Municipios of the year.