Utility disconnections leave vulnerable citizens at risk to a range of devastating outcomes. As winter sets in, COVID-19 exacerbates their precarity. Supported by 70+ organisations, a Manifesto from Enginyeria sense fronteres (ESF) demands justice for Spanish citizens after the government voted to NOT extend a moratorium on disconnections.
(Translated from original in Spanish)
The central government has agreed not to extend the moratorium on disconnections to all households in the state in a decision that could have dire consequences. Following the Council of Ministers held on 29 September 2020, the temporary extension of the so-called "social shield" was announced, a series of exceptional measures in response to the COVID-19 crisis, but which left out the guarantee of energy and water supplies. This measure, more necessary than ever at the height of the pandemic, affects everyone in their usual home and will leave thousands of families and the most precarious population (migrants, women, young people and pensioners) at the expense of utility companies, which could start a wave of supply cuts. Living in energy precarity hits children and teens especially hard – with impacts that go far beyond health.
Photo: damarcoello
The most vulnerable population, which has historically suffered the worst consequences of the crisis of a predatory system of life, once again sees how, in the face of the current situation of the COVID, it is completely unprotected against the great energy oligopoly. An abandonment that leads to the violation of the right to a dignified life, to the supply of such basic supplies as water, electricity or an adequate temperature in their homes.
