The president of the Commonwealth of Services of the Province of Huelva, Santiago Ponce, claims that the ruling affects ordinances from May 2025 that were never applied. The Town Hall of Bonares defends the opposite and requests the annulment of the current regulations.
The water tariffs charged by Giahsa in the province of Huelva will not change as a result of the ruling from the Superior Court of Justice of Andalusia (TSJA) that upheld the appeal from the Town Hall of Bonares against the approval procedure of some ordinances from the Commonwealth of Services of the Province of Huelva (MAS). This is defended by the president of the entity, Santiago Ponce, who maintains that the judicial resolution refers to regulations published in May 2025 that never came into effect.
The information, reported by Huelva Información, states that Ponce has responded to the interpretation of the mayor of Bonares, Juan Antonio García, who believes that the ruling represents a new judicial setback and opens the door for the annulment of subsequent ordinances, those currently in force.
"The tariffs have not been stopped"
According to Ponce's version, the problem arose in the initial publication of the ordinances, when the paragraph indicating their provisional nature and the opening of a 30-day public exposure period was not included. Once the error was detected, the Commonwealth decided not to apply them and to restart the procedure. That second process included a new publication, the period for objections, its debate, and the final approval of the ordinances published on 18 August 2025, which are the ones currently in force.
The Town Hall of Bonares maintains a different interpretation. Juan Antonio García believes that the ruling does not merely detect a formal error but determines that the regulation was "tainted with nullity from the outset." Based on that argument, the Town Hall has requested the TSJA to declare the full nullity of the three ordinances approved on 29 July 2025 and published on 18 August, as they followed the same initial procedure. For the mayor, the ruling "opens the door to the nullity of the tariff hike."
Ponce separates both processes and asserts that the known resolution has no effects on the amounts paid by users. He acknowledges that the current tariffs are being challenged in court, but clarifies that this procedure is different: the appeal has been filed by the Town Hall of Paterna del Campo and questions the economic justification of the ordinances. "It is currently in the courts. But it has nothing to do with the other one," he pointed out.
The controversy again highlights the tariff increase approved by the MAS. Ponce confirms that the increase was 10% and justifies it by the economic situation of Giahsa, with a debt estimated at 165 million euros. The president of the Commonwealth insists that the alternative was to reduce that indebtedness or compromise the continuity of a company that provides water service to over 350,000 inhabitants of the province.
Giahsa has disseminated its position on social media, where it insists that "the currently valid tariffs are not the tariffs affected by the ruling." In contrast, García maintains that the resources from the socialist town halls legally question the manner in which the MAS has made some decisions. For now, the known ruling does not imply a modification of the tariffs being charged, according to the MAS's interpretation, while the procedure affecting the current ordinances remains pending resolution.
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