A tractor joins Benitachell’s resources dedicated to disinfecting the streets

BENITACHELL is taking a rural approach to disinfecting the streets, squares and public spaces to combat the spread of coronavirus.

Since the beginning of the week, a tractor with a spraying tank has joined the town hall resources to sanitise areas with the highest human contact.

The Department of Services and Environment, led by María José Ivars and Jorge Pascual, have designed a comprehensive action plan that includes cleansing both public roads and municipal buildings and vehicles.

It covers the cleaning of exteriors, the ‘habitual sweeping’, cleansing daily with lorries and manually with buckets, and the disinfection by means of tractor with tank and spray.

The new tractor method of disinfection, which is being tested throughout the week, will “make it possible to reduce the viral load that may exist”, according to the council.

The tractor is equipped with a sprayer that distributes a solution of water reinforced with sodium hypochlorite onto the streets and pavements, and it will cover the entire urban area and the main streets of developments as well as supermarket parking lots.

On Monday it made its first round, and today a weekly scheduled programme was agreed, “with the aim of avoiding inconvenience to citizens”.

From 7pm to 9am, council-owned and supermarket car parks will be cleansed, from 9am to 1pm the streets of the various housing developments in the district will be disinfected, and from 8.30pm to 10.30pm, the city centre will be sanitised.

Meanwhile, daily cleaning and disinfection will be carried out in sensitive or particularly busy areas such as waste containers and street bins or around the Local Police checkpoint, supermarkets and the Municipal Market, pharmacies, banks, children’s playgrounds and squares, bus stops and municipal buildings.

And regular measures will be carried out to ensure the safety of the staff who continue to provide the necessary basic services.

The municipal buildings that remain open (town hall, Social Services, Municipal Market, Creama, Civil Protection building) will be cleaned daily, with emphasis on the police station twice a day.

In addition, every two weeks, a specialised company certified by the Health Department will carry out a disinfection treatment by means of nebulisation, the first of which was carried out on Tuesday. All council service vehicles will also be disinfected.