Thursday, December 01, 2016

Light, water and heat become a luxury for millions in Spain...

To reduce the money they have to pay, they live in the dark, without heating, or shower just once a week -- victims like millions in Spain of energy poverty.

Welfare associations have for years warned against this situation, but the death earlier this month of 81-year-old Rosa in a fire caused by a candle she used for light has brought the issue firmly to the fore.

Socialist lawmaker Pilar Lucio asked the ruling conservative government to immediately implement a "winter truce" on companies cutting power to those who cannot pay - a measure with majority support in parliament and encouraged in a 2009 EU directive.

 Last year, according to Spain's National Statistics Institute, 10.6 percent of Spaniards were unable to properly heat their homes - or more than four million people - compared to just 5.9 percent in 2008, when an economic crisis kicked off. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Spain's 'starving' school kids shock Europe...
  2. Hungry Spanish pupils flock to summer school for free lunch...
  3. The hungry in Spain forage thrash bins for their next meal...
  4. ‘Nearly 40,000 homes seized in Spain in 2012’
  5. Suicide stirs up Spain's home evictions debate...
  6. Spanish woman sets herself on fire inside bank...
  7. Elderly Spanish couple commits suicide over debts...

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