After they reached retirement age, Francesc Tor, 80, and Antònia Laura Porta, 71, settled within the place the place they have been born, Cava (Alt Urgell), one of many municipalities of Catalonia with higher threat of depopulation.
After they reached retirement age, Francesc Tor, 80, and Antònia Laura Porta, 71, settled within the place the place they have been born, Cava (Alt Urgell), one of many municipalities of Catalonia with higher threat of depopulation. Of the lower than 50 at the moment registered, solely 26 or 27 dwell frequently in certainly one of its three centres, Anso vell, el Querforadat and Cava, in accordance with the mayor, Gisela Sellés. Greater than half are retired, and people who work accomplish that outdoors, in La Seu d'Urgell, Andorra, France... The state of affairs dealing with Cava could possibly be extrapolated to different small cities within the Garrigues, the Noguera, the Solsonès , the 2 Pallars, the Alta Ribagorça, the Alt Urgell, the Urgell, the Conca de Barberà, the Priorat, the Terra Alta or the Ribera d'Ebre, the place pressing actions are wanted to mitigate the lack of inhabitants.
Cava has no grocery retailer or bar and the faculties closed a long time in the past, though a number of rural tourism homes and second houses function in an surroundings that provides fascinating views of Cadí. Entering into Cava is like moving into paradise, though some individuals who began a brand new life right here through the covid pandemic returned to the town when normalcy returned. However in the summertime, the neighbors multiply by three or 4, due to the low head.
The Affiliation of Microtowns of Catalonia; Eines de Repoblament Rural (ERR), the foyer created in 2021 and which brings collectively greater than 500 councils from a most of two,000 registered, and varied research warn of the unsure future dealing with small cities. Geographers Ignasi Aldomà and Josep Ramon Mòdol, from the College of Lleida, already warned in 2021, of their report on new generational reduction indicators within the rural world, that 200 municipalities are "in a vital state of affairs of depopulation". Cava is certainly one of them.
"Abandonment shouldn't be unintended. In Catalonia, no insurance policies have been made to cease the lack of inhabitants; in different communities they began earlier. We wish rurality to be on the middle of the controversy and for a legislation to be authorized to attain optimistic discrimination. Now we've got the identical bureaucratic obligations because the Barcelona Metropolis Council", argues Jaume Gilabert, coordinator of the ERR and mayor of Montgai.
The ERR and Micropobles hope to have of their palms the draft of the Statute of Rural Municipalities, commissioned by the Generalitat, to see to what extent their requests are met. Mario Urrea, president of Micropobles and mayor of Torrebesses, factors out that unavoidable points are "the problem of financing and administrative simplification. We wish extra flexibility and customary sense, they can't demand the identical from us as within the large cities".
In Cava, for instance, they don't have any municipal staff and share a secretary and administrative workplace with two different councils. "We've no sources. When it snows all of the neighbors clear the highway. Solely in the future a month does a boy come to do upkeep work", feedback the mayoress, who settled on this enclave of Alt Urgell in 2016. The Consistory is now immersed within the procedures to change the plan of 'municipal city planning (POUM) in order that, if a challenge is introduced, bars or eating places may be opened in its municipal space. "Now the POUM doesn't permit it", says the mayoress.
The ERR and Micropobles – an affiliation that brings collectively 240 city councils with lower than 1,000 inhabitants – hope that the long run statute will decide formulation to adapt the Urbanism legislation to the fact of the native world by creating particular administration fashions for facilities in recession. Taking into account that a frequent downside is the housing deficit, which drives out younger individuals who wish to emancipate and blocks the arrival of potential new neighbors, the ERR proposed the choice of adapting homes in present constructions on land rustic and enhance the tax stress on homeowners of closed buildings, second houses and vacationer flats, amongst different measures.
"For us, second houses are extra of an issue than a profit; sure, some properties have been repaired, however they've induced a rise in costs and made it tough for locals to entry a house. As well as, 15% of the city's homes are closed, there are individuals who choose them to fall down reasonably than hire them. We've three or 4 households who wish to come and dwell right here, however who cannot discover housing", states the mayor of Montgai. "The tragedy is that long-term insurance policies aren't designed. If clear and forceful motion shouldn't be taken, the forgotten Catalonia will turn out to be the closed Catalonia, some municipalities discover it very tough to outlive", he provides.
Mario Urrea is especially fearful concerning the financial mannequin to which some micro-villages are compelled. "In Segrià, diversified agriculture has been changed by intensive monoculture. The lifelong farmer rents his land to somebody who comes from outdoors and his youngsters are compelled to go away to earn a residing. The identical goes for windmills and photovoltaic panels. Why do not they put them within the Free Zone? It's extra worthwhile for the farmer to lease his land than to domesticate. That is making the most of the distress and feeding the depopulation", displays Urrea. One of many challenges, in his opinion, is to draw small entrepreneurs, to draw them with tax advantages. These are proposals that the mayors demand to be taken into consideration within the draft legislation of the Statute of Rural Municipalities, the draft of which is being reviewed by totally different departments of the Generalitat, as confirmed by the Presidency.
Gisela Sellés considers that Cava's problem is now not to win many extra inhabitants, however to retain these it has. The mayor feedback that the drought and the restricted providers accessible solely permit for average will increase to be thought-about.
Francesc and Antònia get pleasure from a peaceable life in Ansovell and take breaks in Andorra, the place they've spent half their lives and the place their son and daughter dwell. Francesc labored for 35 years at Forces Elèctriques d'Andorra, and Antònia, within the restaurant sector. "Now we handle the chickens and a vegetable backyard, however we needed to put up a fence to forestall wild boars and roe deer from coming in and destroying every part. I additionally exit to the forest to gather firewood", feedback Francesc, aggravated by the little support that reaches the village. He regrets that one of many streets continues with out a completed sewer or entry to ingesting water.
He explains that 60 years in the past all households had wheat fields, dairy cows, in addition to pigs and chickens, and that calves have been offered at cheap costs. Now there isn't any farmer left, there's solely a small herd of a producer from one other city and the 4 cows that Antoni Pubill, 80 years previous, the one resident of a village, within the middle of Cava, takes care of 4 households used to dwell there. Now solely his farmhouse stays standing there, a privileged viewpoint of the Cadí. "I solely left Cal Pubill the 2 years I used to be an intern at a faculty in La Seu and through the navy. I take into account that Cava is already depopulated, since if individuals from outdoors had not settled there, I might be the one one left. Some individuals got here there at first very excited, however they find yourself leaving", summarizes Antoni, the final witness of a life-style on the verge of extinction.
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