Mazarrón to get its own crematorium

A slightly morbid topic, I suppose, but an important one nevertheless as every one of us is going to die one day and cremation is an option which many would wish to choose for themselves.

The new crematorium facility, which is to be constructed by a Cartagena firm called 'Estavesa' on the instructions of the Mazarrón municipality, will be located in the 'urbanización El Alcolar' in the coastal area of Puerto de Mazarrón. It will include several viewing rooms and will complement the work of the already-existing morgue in Mazarrón by permitting cremations to be carried out locally.

According to municipal data, foreigners now comprise roughly 30 per cent of the local population, so the new crematorium facility will include repatriation services for those foreigners who have died in Spain, but wish their bodies to be repatriated to their home countries for burial.

It is hoped in addition that the new crematorium will help to solve the space problems which exist in the two local cemeteries, which contain many unmarked graves dating from the Civil War period, as well as a large ossuary. (My comment: as some may have read, the Spanish Parliament recently passed a law about the exhumation of bodies dating from this period and interestingly enough former British politician Michael Portillo, who is half-Spanish, recently made a programme for the BBC about his own family during this period, his father having had to go into exile for many years, which is why Michael Portillo was born in the UK.)

The linked story does not seem to indicate a time-frame when the new crematorium will enter service, but the way it is written seems to indicate it is a definite plan that is likely to happen fairly rapidly (presumably in the next year or so?).

Strife in the agricultural sector in Mazarrón area

Many of those who live or vacation in the Mazarrón area will have been to the Percheles beach and will know that to get there one must pass through the small town/village of Cañada de Gallego, whose main industry appears to be highly-concentrated agricultural production.

One of the largest firms in the area, given the size and seeming-modernity of its buildings and infrastructure, that I have often noticed when driving through the town on the way to the beach is the Agrícola Méndez company. I've no idea of the underlying causes (*), but it seems that all is not well there just now, as employees claiming they have not been paid their wages are staging demonstrations outside the firm's premises, a development that has been met with a large contingent of Guardia Civil personnel who have been drafted in to maintain public order and to prevent riots.

(*) There are a number of possible causes, I suppose, but until it becomes clearer what is going on it is perhaps better not to speculate.

MCC EGM - another date for your diary

An important upcoming event at Mazarron Country Club (MCC):

MCC Community of Owners EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL MEETING (EGM) Tuesday 10th November 2009 at 'Mariano de Camposol' Restaurant, Camposol Timings First call - 4.30 pm (16.30 hours) Second call - 5.00 pm (17.00 hours)

- this follows on from the inconclusive Annual General Meeting (AGM) which took place on Thursday 24th September 2009 and which I mentioned briefly here.

Although I was able to be at the AGM, so was able to produce quasi-verbatim notes of what happened (already circulated to owners who have access to the private bulletin board known as 'Soapbox'), I shall unfortnately not be present at the forthcoming EGM, so I hope someone else may take on the role of 'unofficial' note-taker for the benefiit of those who cannot be there this time.

Date for your diary - MCC Community Bonfire Party

Community Bonfire Party! (No Fireworks) Saturday November 7th at 6.30pm On green area 31/33 3 Euros per person ... pay on the night! Includes ... Food & Fun! (Chilli, Curry, Stew, Spuds & Coleslaw!) ~ We're only catering for 150 people ... so make sure you're early! ~ Please bring your own ... Drink, Glass, Plate, Fork & Chair! Make the best Guy Fawkes and win the prize! Weigh the Cake! - Euro a guess! What's Guy Fawkes Name? - Euro a guess!

Mazarrón Council seeking to update register of foreign residents

Mazarrón Council has announced yesterday that it wishes to update its register of foreign citizens resident in the area (the "Padrón Municipal"); this includes persons who are citizens of a member of the European Union and those who are citizens of countries within the European Economic Area (for example, countries such as Switzerland or Norway). The deadline for registering or renewing registration with Mazarrón Council is 31 December 2009.

Although my knowledge of Spanish is very limited, the requirement to renew registration seems to involve those who have already been registered for at least five years, with no changes having been notified since then. For new registrations the requirement is for those included in the Central Aliens Register (the "Registro Central de Extranjeros" - I presume this relates to the NIE register) for at least two years and not already registered with Mazarrón Council if they are resident in the area.

For further information, those concerned may contact the Bureau of Statistics ("Negociado de Estadística"), located on the ground floor of the Mazarrón Council building; this office may also be contacted by telephone on 968 590 012 (extension 127).

Other press report here.

MCC Gardening Group - gardening with [and on] a heart!

To start the new gardening season off at Mazarron Country Club, members of the Gardening Group decided it would be a good idea to have a barbecue at the top of one of the pieces of ground that has been transformed since the Spring into an attractively planted and gravelled area, opposite Manzana 28 and between Manzanas 33 & 31. So a group of around a dozen members and friends gathered together on Sunday afternoon to have a get-together and barbecue using as a centre-piece a gravelled heart, symbolising the good things the Gardening Group is trying to achieve for all at MCC. As you can see from the photographs below they seem to have had a pretty good time:

MCC Neighbourhood Concern Gardening Group - 25 October 2009 "Gardening with - and having a barbecue on - a Heart!" Click here to see enlargements of all these photographs, where you will also find detailed descriptions of each photograph. Click here to see enlargements of all these photographs, where you will also find detailed descriptions of each photograph.

(Barbara kindly sent me the photographs to enable me to do this blog article.)

Don't forget to put your clocks back tonight!

Mi tiempo en Mazarrón está a punto de terminar como regrese a Escocia mañana

(My time in Mazarrón is almost over as I return to Scotland tomorrow.) I shall very likely be back in Mazarrón, however, near the beginning of March next year and will probably be here unti the end of May.

Meantime I've altered the sub-header message at the top of the page to mark my imminent departure from Spain.

As you were ...

Está lloviendo de nuevo en Murcia

The lovely bright morning we started off with here in Murcia was destined not to last, according to the early-morning weather forecast on two of the Spanish television channels I watch (the national TVE and the local 7RM) and the sky duly clouded-over by late morning and in the early afternoon the rain started and has since strengthened with bouts of quuite heavy rain. Accentuating the positive, at least I've been able to turn off the irrigation in the garden, but on the other hand the washing I put out to dry will certainly not be ready for ironing or folding tonight. It's warm enough though and I'm sitting here having lunch with the door to the front patio wide open so there's not much wrong with Bill''s little world today. Thought you might like this, though:

A belated "Happy Second Birthday" to my blog ...

Last Thursday was the second birthday of 'casabill - the blog'. However, I haven't been blogging much of late, largely because I had a guest staying with me here at MCC for a week until Tuesday last and a preoccupation with recent events here at the 'Country Club'. As with the first year of blogging here, it's been another eventful (turbulent?) year for people in Spain and around the world and not least at 'Mazarron Country Club'.

The continuing drought in the south-eastern part of Spain is likely to see further 'adjustments' having to be made in the lives of people in the area and the spheres of economic activity which are practicable here. For example, whereas the Murcia regional government has asked for for a water transfer of 69 cubic hectometres[*] of water from the Tajo (Tagus) to the Segura river system, of which 24.5 would be for general water supply and 44.5 for agricultural irrigation, the Comisión de Explotación del Trasvase Tajo-Segura (the agency which studies and recommends such transfers) is prepared to ask the Government to authorise the transfer of only 49.9 cubic hectometres of water for the three months from October to December (the first quarter of the 'hydrological year'), of which only 25.5 would be for agricultural irrigation, with general water supplies being largely 'protected' with an allocation of 25.4 cubic hectometres. It seems that the Tajo system has only 134 cubic hectometres of useable supply itself so cannot supply all that is required for the Segura system and the Alicante/Murcia areas. No doubt the central Government in Madrid will have some hard decisions to make, which will inevitably leave some unhappy whatever the outcome is.

By all accounts the structural deficit of water in Spain is not going to go away and unfortunately desalination is an expensive alternative; water here is unlikely ever to become plentiful and what is available is probably going to have to be priced at a higher level than it currently is in coming years. Murcia already pays far more for water than the national average throughout Spain and water-supply in the country is already a major political 'hot-potato' as the tone of this highly-charged article (one of many similar I have read) indicates.

[*] A cubic hectometre contains a gigalitre; this is 1 billion litres or 1 million cubic meters. Read more here.