More than 5 million people are victims of energy poverty in Spain, a phenomenon that is charged annually around 7000 lives.
According to a report Friday by the Spanish agency 20 minutes,, Administrations, political parties, and giant energy question these days as to who has responsibility in the death of Rosa, the old lady from Reus. The woman of 81 years died last Monday in a fire caused by a candle having the power was cut off for non-payment.
While searching for answers, the focus is put precisely in those millions of homes invisible, like that of the octogenarian Rosa, have difficulty paying for basic supplies, such as electricity or gas. Rosa died in poverty, as hard as it is real, call energy poverty, a problem that affects more than 5 million citizens and which has attracted around 7,000 deaths a year in Spain.
As emerges from the latest study biennial on poverty and inequality energy of the Association of Environmental Sciences (ACA), published in April of this year, according to data of 2014.
Fire, as the old lady from Reus, as well as diseases related to low temperatures, are causing these deaths. These fatal injuries are respiratory diseases (colds or pneumonia), circulatory (hypertension, myocardial infarction, stroke…), mental health problems (anxiety and depression), among others.
6 times more deaths than by traffic accidents
To understand the gravity of the case, the ACA makes a comparison of the deaths due to energy poverty, with the dead road. The figure is multiplied by six in the case of victims for this type of indigence in front of the killed in traffic accidents in 2014.
And it is not a new data point. This chilling scenario has been worsening progressively while the price of the gas and electricity has soared for all households at the same time that rents have been coming down by the crisis.
according To the National Institute of Statistics (INE), in 2007 –a year before the outbreak of the crisis– the average annual expenditure on electricity and gas to Spanish households was about 700 euros (see chart). In 2015, the monthly cost of these bills increased by more than 42 %, standing at eur 1,000, about € 300 more.
The data is still more damaging to the pockets, if we take into account the price of the electric bill that sets out Eurostat: increased by 76 % between 2007 and 2014 by the outcrop of costs and the inclusion in the fee of various concepts.
low-Income and high: the increase of the gap
This negative evolution has been unaffordable for almost 11 % of households, according to the INE, unable to maintain their housing at a temperature adequate (the World Health Organization warns that the temperature of the home should be between 18 and 22º C to not pose a danger to health).
Another study, conducted by the research center Economics for Energy, a private entity and nonprofit, that has as partners major multinational energy such as Natural Gas or Iberdrola, already alerted that between 2007 and 2013, the index of energy poverty in Spain has multiplied by three, to reach 1 out of every 10 households. The cause: the increase of the gap between high income and low during the crisis.
This report, entitled energy Poverty in Spain. Economic analysis and proposals for action, did the voice of alarm in some communities that had higher rates of inability of families to meet the costs of their basic energy needs. These regions are Andalusia, the Canary islands and Murcia. On the opposite side stood the Basque Country, Castilla y León or La Rioja.
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