The neighborhoods forming the Cadagua valley in Barakaldo, including Urgozo and Las Delicias, Larrazabal, Santa Águeda, Zubileta, Kastrexana, Cadagua, Peñaskuren, and Burtzeña, are located far from the municipal center and share a significant lack of services, public facilities, communications, and accessibility. This situation has led to numerous complaints from residents, who feel abandoned by the local administration, sometimes resulting in motions presented in the municipal plenary session.

In response to this reality, a special and strategic plan has been initiated for the comprehensive regeneration of this entire area, stretching from Burtzeña to the border with Alonsotegi. Juan Antonio Pizarro (PSE), Councillor for Housing, Planning, and Urban Management, acknowledged that “actions have been taken in other parts of Barakaldo, but this area of the municipality has been largely neglected for many years.” The councillor added that “Barakaldo owes a debt to the Cadagua and Burtzeña neighborhoods,” primarily.

The drafting of this plan, with an investment of 121,000 euros, was awarded a few days ago to define the necessary actions at each point. This study, which will analyze the needs of the area, will last for one year, coinciding with the electoral period, and will begin next week. Pizarro emphasized that “it is time to take an important step forward. It is a necessary project, and we must continue working to make the improvement of the area a reality as soon as possible. It is a fair and necessary demand for our city and its residents.”

All these neighborhoods require improvements in connectivity, building rehabilitation, and the regeneration and provision of public spaces. In the Cadagua neighborhood, for example, residents have been requesting for years, among other things, the complete renovation of the sewage and rainwater drainage system, and reporting the landslide on the slope leading to the Zorroza curves, with sloping streets and cracks in homes.

This document will subsequently be integrated into the ongoing revision of the General Urban Planning Plan and the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan, as well as other planning initiatives. The study will include “concrete and viable” proposals for both building rehabilitation and space regeneration. This roadmap will be presented to administrations “to request resources and collaboration.” The government team states that “we need to see what can be done, for example, so that the highway does not influence the lives of residents so much or so that an ambulance can enter Cadagua properly.”

During the plan's development process, citizen participation sessions and meetings with associations and groups from the different neighborhoods will be held. Alba Delgado, socialist councillor for Sustainable Development and Natural Environment, stressed that “decisions will be made hand in hand with the residents,” adding that this area “is a strategic valley to rehabilitate, naturalize, and bring closer to the rest of Barakaldo.”