Filomena has brought Madrid’s heaviest snows in 50 years, claimed four lives, torn the limbs off tens of thousands of trees and managed the rare feat of leaving the capital in a state of icy, suspended animation.

But no part of Spain has been hit quite as mercilessly as the Cañada Real, the shanty town 12km from the centre of Madrid that is home to Benayad and 8,500 other people, most of them of Moroccan or Roma descent.

Since the beginning of October, the 4,500 people who live in Sectors 5 and 6 of Europe’s largest informal settlement have been without power. The electricity provider, Naturgy, says it has never cut off the supply to the Cañada Real and blames on marijuana plantations in the shanty town that have been hooked up to the supply and are drawing so much power that the system trips time and time again.

The people of Sectors 5 and 6 dispute the claims but say they are beside the point. The lack of electricity, they say, is putting their lives – and the lives of 1,800 children in the area – in grave danger. If the situation was desperate before, Filomena has brought the Cañada Real to the brink. Children have chilblains because their hands have been destroyed by the cold, and respiratory infections. Between 40 and 50 people have suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning because of the butane heaters used by those who can afford them. 

In the meantime, the city and regional governments have been offering residents emergency shelter and butane canisters to see them through Filomena and its aftermath. According to Madrid city hall, of the 17 families identified as being especially vulnerable, only two took up the offer of moving to a shelter.

Some residents say they have turned down the offer because they are afraid of mixing with others during the Covid pandemic, and are puzzled as to why temporary accommodation is being proffered when all they want is their electricity back.

“Morale has gone through the floor,” says a Cañada Real citizen. “This is a national disgrace – and it’s happening in a developed country in Europe in 2021.”