After 153 freezing days and 41 straight mornings of gate-side protests, the pupils of Playas de Orihuela can finally celebrate a breakthrough: the gas is back on.
There’s just one small detail.
The boiler is still broken.
Yes, after five months without heating — and more than a month of daily demonstrations by fed-up parents, teachers and pupils — the supply has been restored to the school in Orihuela. Champagne on ice? Not quite. The heating system itself has been out of action since March 2024.
The Parents’ Association has welcomed the gas reconnection but made it clear the job is only half done. “If there’s no solution before Thursday, we’ll continue taking weekly photos,” they warned, pointedly. Winter may be limping towards the exit, but, as they stress, heating in a school is not exactly a luxury add-on. It is, astonishingly, considered “a basic necessity”.
The saga has become the icy symbol of a wider maintenance crisis across municipal schools. In response to mounting complaints, the City Council unveiled a grand structural plan worth €6.6 million running until 2030. Nineteen schools, the CRA Azahar, the CEE Público Antonio Sequeros and two municipal nursery schools are included in the blueprint.
Phase one? A €639,200 “shock plan” to fix deficiencies piled up during the first year of the maintenance contract. Phase two? Nearly €6 million for five years of preventive and corrective maintenance, promising urgent repairs within 24 hours and routine fixes in two days. The expectation is that the system will be fully operational by the end of the year.
Meanwhile, heating problems have haunted schools across the municipality all winter. The Council was forced to put the heating oil supply out to tender after protests erupted over classrooms left in the cold. A two-year contract worth €94,847 — with possible extensions — has been budgeted under “fuels and lubricants”, pending final approval of the municipal accounts.
Delivery times are now strictly regulated: a maximum of 48 hours from request to unloading, with top scores awarded to suppliers who can deliver in under 24.
In the interim, a one-year “bridging” contract was awarded to Gas Natural Comercializadora for €16,940 to keep diesel flowing. The Council described it as a temporary emergency measure to guarantee continuity of public education, citing plummeting temperatures and rising flu cases among pupils.
So yes — the gas is flowing again.
Now all that’s needed is a working boiler to turn it into something radical: actual heat.
