The unforeseen event that has left no option for now to bathe in the Beaches of Barcelona to people with disability it is about attenuating with a provisional and intermediate solution. After the first four weeks of the season in which they have lacked monitors and other amenities at the authorized points, the City hall has installed chairs and loungers reserved for people with reduced mobility under a pergola since last Saturday on the beach of Nova Icaria. In any case, there is still a lack of amphibious chairs and other facilities for diving into the sea, keys to undoing obstacles in the access to the coast. Perhaps help for bathers in Wheelchair not be available until the end of June, despite the fact that the heat has already set in.
“We can only see how others get into the water without us being able to do it. It’s amazing,” criticizes Àngel Urraca, a member of the Accessibilitat Ciutat i Platges Barcelona platform. For his part, he municipal government explains that the temporary measure arose in contacts with the group “given the impossibility of starting the service” that helps them immerse themselves in the sea. The executive has maintained that he thus seeks to “alleviate as much as possible the inconveniences caused by the delay & rdquor; in the incorporation of personnel who assist bathers with reduced mobility.
Accessibilitat Ciutat i Platges Barcelona manifested itself a couple of weeks ago, when a few dozen people in wheelchairs blocked traffic on the Ronda Litoral for a few minutes. They protested the lack of support for the bathroom and of modules for locker room for people with disabilities. The organization calls a new concentration for the same reasons this Friday. “We do not agree with what they offer us now. They spend absurd money. That is better than nothing, but a solution has to be found to make bathing easier now,” Urraca postulates. The consistory reiterates that it undertakes to complete the service “as soon as possible & rdquor ;, without specifying more.
Desert due to lack of certificate
The hiring of the assisted bathing team should have closed around March so that it would be available from April 1, coinciding with the start of the beach season, and last until the mercyin September, adapting to the same calendar the rest of the summer activities. The city council took out the concession to contest for two years and willing to pay 664,013.50 euros. only bid one company, Aunar, the same to which the previous contract was entrusted. However, the award was declared void this time, because the applicant did not submit a certificate of being up to date with payments to Tax authorities.
While trying to unravel the setback, the consistory has awarded a contract urgently to condition what it calls an “accessible stay area& rdquor; for people with disabilities, without the possibility of entering the water. The space is not open every day, but from Wednesday to Sunday and from 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Two have been recruited employees.
The local government specifies that it pays 13,977.53 euros for the temporary service without the option of a bathroom. The bases of the award establish that it is provided until June 25, which gives an idea of the margin that the municipal executive grants itself to unblock the mess that has left bathers with disabilities without assistance to cool off in the bank.
“Why not us?”
Last Saturday around noon, there were a dozen bathers under the pergola from Nova Icaria. This Wednesday, there was not a single one. Lydia García Modrego, who travels with a walker, go to ask the monitors to make sure of the aid they provide. “They do a brutal job. The problem is the bureaucracy”, he points out.
Related news
Lydia often goes to Sant Miquel, one of the three beaches that has a section for people with reduced mobility. “They have told me that it will be closed there until June,” says Lydia, who plans to go to Nova Icària in the next few days, but accompanied by a friend to help her take a bath. With chronic pain for a degenerative illness and hemiplegia, she does not see herself capable of doing it alone. “I can’t get to the water without help. They are the ones who have to sign the ones who make this not pull. On the web they say that the service has been working since April 1, but the reality is different,” he complains.
Basi Torre watches from the promenade to the youths who play beach volleyball. She is sitting in a wheelchair. “I never get into the water because it scares me. There’s too much for this little body! But it’s wrong that the bathroom is no longer offered. All the classmates want to come bathe. If others can, why can’t we?& Rdquor ;, she asks herself. She supports Custo Rosales: “The monitors are there but they can hardly do anything. They don’t have the machines to get people into the water. They can transfer it from the chairs to the loungers, but they can’t do more.”