Government offices to set up in rural Spain to fight 'depopulation'

 

GOVERNMENT efforts to prevent rural exodus and dwindling and ageing populations in remote inland countryside have been stepped up – the latest project involves a Social Security office data processing centre opening in the province of Soria (Castilla y León).

The aim is to provide a high number of meaningful, permanent jobs so that residents in tiny villages do not feel the need to move away to find work – a situation which is largely responsible for 'depopulation', as only those of retirement age and above do not have to worry about professional opportunities within commuting distance.

Spain's government wants to start to decentralise some of the country's major operations in order to create job opportunities outside its largest cities.

Archiving and documenting centres for its main public institutions, set up in or near very small villages, are one way of helping combat 'depopulation', says energy transition and environment minister Teresa Ribera, who is also one of the country's four deputy presidents.

Opening offices outside the typical hubs of Madrid and Barcelona will also save money, since rent and land costs considerably less in the countryside.

Meetings will be held roughly every month and a half to discuss ways of halting 'depopulation' – and will take place in the most at-risk areas, not in Madrid where the central government is based.

Lack of job opportunities in isolated, rural areas mean the type of people needed to create essential services are moving out, causing a vicious circle whereby those of working age are forced to move away due to lack of services, Sra Ribera points out.

Some of the items on the draft list of 30 possible actions drawn up include funding 5G and internet coverage in rural parts in order to make it easier for jobs to be created or for people employed by firms in larger, urban areas to work from home.

At present, many telecomms operators are not willing to set up networks like these in deserted parts of Spain, because they would not have enough customers to make it worth their while financially, meaning they would make a loss – but Spain's government is prepared to subsidise these facilities to guarantee their availability.

Hubs of Spain's 'open university', the UNED, plus mobile ID-card and passport renewal offices, and Guardia Civil stations are hoped to be set up in remote parts.

Schools may have to come later – many of these villages have few or no children, because residents of the right age to have young families tend to move away for work.

In some cases, no babies have been born in various rural villages for decades – at the beginning of this month, little Yerai became a local celebrity when he was the first child to be born in the tiny hamlet of Puebla de Pedraza (Segovia province, Castilla y León) since 1977.

 

Photograph: The river Duero (which becomes the Douro when it reaches Portugal) in the province of Soria, Castilla y León (Miguel Ángel García/Wikimedia Commons)