Discussion on public health risks and youth protests
From Global News Podcast
PolandShooting IncidentPublic HealthYouth ProtestsSpain Elections
Transcript
A city. Now, it's of course filling up rapidly. We can't pump it out quick enough because we don't have the equipment to do that. And we've been working to get that equipment in, but it hasn't yet been enabled. So that's a massive risk because that water is actually contaminated with sewage. And if it floods, then the communities around, particularly children, are at huge public health risk. And when you ask for heavy diggers and whatever to be brought in and the Israelis say no, what's the reason they say no? Well, the objection with some of the supplies is that it would go to other use for weaponry or other use. You know, of course it's not. We very closely monitor how supplies are brought in. We then get them to where they're needed most urgently to provide essential services and support for children and families who need it most. Toby Fricker there Speaking to the BBC's Owen Bennett Jones. Now, Spain is holding a general election later this month, but the mood amongst some voters isn't overly optimistic. For a month, protesters, mainly young people, have been camping in the center of the capital, Madrid, fed up with the rising number of evictions brought on by rental increases and the cost of living. Meanwhile, teach teachers have been on strike, angry at cuts in public education, as she Sharma has been gauging feeling amongst the country's young people. There is a joke during the rounds here in Madrid that the sports retail company Decathlon has done more for housing in one month than the Spanish government has in eight years in charge through supplying hundreds of tents that I see before me here in Puerto del Sol, one of the city's largest open squares. Per Testa set up camp a month ago, enraged at the eviction of an 87 year old pensioner called Mari Carmen, who subsequently died in hospital. Most of the people that have occupied this square are young, but all of them feel marginalized in the face of rental increases and a higher cost of living. So how do they view the upcoming elections? We have like a dichotomy between the far right and the far, far right. And then there's the left parties that are too busy fighting with each other as young people working. What is that you want? Public health care, public education, to increase wages. Everything around us is becoming really expensive. Our wages are still really, really, really low. Even highly skilled professionals are struggling to make ends meet. My name is Marcos and basically I'm a Web developer. I'm 25 years old. You can have a salary one.