A BRITISH family has voiced outrage after torrential rain repeatedly caused sewage to spill outside their Marbella home — despite shelling out nearly €10,000 for plumbing work intended to prevent such incidents.
The expats, who live in San Pedro de Alcantara, say the problem has persisted with little action from the town hall, raising concerns about public health and local infrastructure.
During periods of heavy rain, sewage from every home on the street is forced up through the pipes and out of a manhole outside the family’s property.
This leaves toilet tissue, human waste and sanitary products spread across the pavement.
Ashlie Walker and her partner had ‘renovated the whole plumbing system inside’ their home in February and were told the existing manhole would no longer be usable, with no one ‘saying or knowing where it led to’.
Hidralia, a Spanish water company, informed them that a new manhole would need to be installed, with the company handling the external work and the family’s plumber fitting the internal system.
Paying €9,221 for this new system, the expats thought they were solving any potential problems – that was until they returned home one day to find sewage covering the pavement outside their front door.
Street cleaners, who did not come to the street until the heavy rain started, appear each morning to sweep away the sewage.
They clean ‘at about 6.30am or 7am before anyone gets up,’ Walker says.
However this cleaning is only a temporary fix because each time it rains the sewage reappears.
Yesterday, when the street cleaners arrived, numerous residents ‘came out and complained to them and they said they always tell their boss about it but they keep just having to come out and clean it’.
These employees are not the only ones who have complained; one of Walker’s neighbours has complained ‘more than once’ to a number given to her by a friend in the police.
The council are aware that this is an ‘ongoing problem’ and beyond her concern about the hazardous waste outside her front door, Walker worries about the social consequences.
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Walker and her partner moved to Spain from Leeds 20 years ago. The couple’s daughter and son, aged 10 and 11, were born in the country.
The children ‘attend the local Spanish school’ and the family has become ‘really integrated into the Spanish culture and lifestyle’.
When they moved onto this new street they were pleased to find ‘lovely’ neighbours, most of whom have lived on the road since they were born.
Now the family ‘feels neighbours are getting frustrated with the situation’.
“We would hate for this to cause friction between them and us,” Walker said.
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