An introduction to Orihuela Costa on the Costa Blanca ('White Coast')

I write as an ex-pat with years of experience of life in this part of Spain.

Orihuela Costa is situated just a few miles down the coast from Torrevieja, in Alicante Province of the Valencian Community of Spain. It shares a strip of the coast line more commonly referred to as the 'Costa Blanca' ('White Coast')

This part of the coast is actually administered by the inland city of Orihuela.

Orihuela Costa is the home a a fairly mixed group of international residents from all over northern Europe and has been subject of unbridled development, mass house building on huge estates called 'urbanisations' with accompanying shopping malls.

The local authority controlled by the 'PP' party (which are fairly right wing) are noted for their corrupt practices which are not uncommon in Spain.

Crime is rife and now that the bottom has fallen out of the housing market, unemployment rises causing even more criminal activity.

Residents lead a life from homes which are heavily alarmed, security barred and enclosed and if they venture out, they are frequently mugged and attacked.

The authorities have not developed the infrastructure to deal with the mass increase in population and so raw sewerage flows across the nearby La Zenia beach but is concealed from tourists by bulldozers covering it with sand. Rubbish collection is poor and fly tipping common. Indeed, such is the waste and sewerage problems, that cockroaches are now common three, four and five storeys up in apartment blocks where they climb up the drain pipes.