The Government has definitively approved this week the construction project for the Les Preses and Olot variant, an announcement that the president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, made public this Saturday during an event in Olot. The decision comes after completing the public hearing process and analyzing the proposals submitted during the processing.
The day was also marked by the protest called before the Olot City Council by dozens of farmers and environmentalists, who rejected the infrastructure and called it "folly". The concentration coincided with the institutional event and gathered residents and representatives of the agricultural sector at the doors of the town hall.
Protest in front of Olot Town Hall
The mobilization was promoted by Salvem les Valls, Garrotxa Viva and Unió de Pagesos. During the protest, attendees displayed banners with the slogans "full roads, empty aquifers" and "this is an axis at the service of the meat industries", in a show of opposition to the route and its possible effects on the territory.
The conveners maintain that the bypass entails "a serious error in full ecological crisis" and warn of its impact on the agricultural plain of Vall d"en Bas. The rejection focuses especially on the consequences that, in their opinion, the work may have on the environmental balance and the economic model of the area.
Concern for the aquifer and agricultural activity
Moisès Mont, member of Unió de Pagesos and of Salvem les Valls, warned of the effect that the new infrastructure could have on the water resources of the region.
"It will affect the aquifer, which is the one that feeds a large part of the region" - Moisès Mont, Unió de Pagesos y Salvem les Valls
The same spokesperson also assured that the variant will entail more industrial estates, more developable areas, more slaughterhouse and more meat industry, and placed the debate on the impact on water and on the future of activity in the surroundings of Vall d"en Bas.
"We will have a brutal unemployment and a very serious problem" - Moisès Mont, Unió de Pagesos y Salvem les Valls
With the definitive approval already announced by the Government, the Les Preses and Olot bypass enters a new phase while opposition from part of the territory is maintained, which insists that the project compromises agricultural land and water resources in an especially sensitive area of La Garrotxa.