An all too familiar story

It isn’t just the lack of customers that is making Ociopía, the commercial centre in Orihuela, fall apart, it is the great cracks that have appeared in the walls of the buildings, some of which are wide enough to put your hand into. Pavements have parted from walls and paths that were level now slope down. The place is literally falling apart.

The shopping centre was only built four years ago on reclaimed land alongside the river Segura. The engineers, who are examining it, say that the ballast that was used was not suitable to stop the land from moving. That may sound all too familiar to some of the residents here at Villas Andrea.