Malaga tops national dirty cities ranking

MALAGA is the eighth dirtiest city in Spain, a survey shows. The survey, carried out by Consumer and User Organization (OCU) with residents of Spain’s 62 main cities as well as information from the town halls, concludes that Oviedo oin northern Spain and Elche (Alicante) are the cleanest cities in the country.

Over the 16 years in which the survey has been carried out, residents say that their level of general satisfaction has improved from 53 to 58 points, which the organization believes is insufficient, especially as the results have become worse in 16 cities.

All the cities at the top, or clean end of the list are in the North of Spain, starting with Oviedo and Elche and followed by Bilbao, Pamplona, Getxo and San Sebastian.

Badajoz is at the bottom, followed by Jerez de la Frontera, Sevilla, Jaen, Huelva, Alcala de Henares and Teruel.

The average budget spent by city halls on street cleaning €52.51 per inhabitant per year, but it appears that residents’ satisfaction does not correspond on the amount spend, as Pamplona and Jaen, with identical budgets, are at opposite ends of the scale.

More than 84 per cent of residents believe that the best way to keep the streets clean is to make people aware of the importance of contributing to this.

The study shows that the more machines used to clean the streets, the greater the perception of cleanliness from the local residents, whereas the more street sweepers there are, the dirtier people see it.

A common problem in Spanish cities is dog mess, for which all cities except Oviedo and Pamplona ‘fail’.

Despite it being a problem, no one was fined for this in Madrid or Valencia throughout the whole of 2009.

Picture Credit: Chodaboy