It has been a difficult period for the people in Madrid, in Spain where this week, temperatures have hit a historic low. Lidia Arribas, a local has said that they are not animals and dogs live a better life than them.

Days after, one of its heaviest snowfall is received by Madrid in 50 years as they woke up on Tuesday morning to experience one of its lowest temperatures in decades as the mercury plummeted to minus 10 degrees Celsius and that is a frightening 14 degrees Farenheight.

The brutal cold in Spain had hit badly and it was very hard in the Canada Real Galiana, which is one of the largest slums in Europe where for more than half a month nearly 8000 of its residents have been living with no electricity required for heating and there is also no light.

Police have blamed that the electricity shortage on the illegal plantations of cannabis whose fans, extractors, and lamps have used so much power that they have caused widespread outages in electricity in the areas surrounding the place.

The power cuts have posed a serious crisis and the entire situation of the cold snap have been denounced by the human rights experts at the UN, various NGOs, and also Penelope Cruz, the Oscar-winning Spanish actress.

A 37-year-old mother of three Arribas has said that she is angry with the authorities and nobody is doing anything and everyone is passing the buck. She was walking with a torch in hand back to her home where the walls are covered with mildew.

Her seven-year-old daughter Ainara is curled up in a blanket and says that she always sleeps and her head is under the covers and it is done to protect herself from the damp and cold.

There is no electricity at home and she along with her sisters and brothers was not able to get any of the online homework set by the school. In their home, neither the washing machine nor their fridge is working.

In a 16 kilometer (10 mile) stretch of land flanking, an unofficial settlement is built in Madrid’s M50 ring road in the southeastern section called Canada Real that is home to a community that is largely of gypsy origin from Morocco and they live in extreme poverty.

The settlement is built along a cattle trail and it is a sprawling shantytown that has existed for decades and the most recent power cuts have affected more than 4000 residents.

The brutal freeze has left all those people struggling as they are unable to cope without heating.

A three-year-old girl has shown signs of hypothermia as she was taken to hospital on Sunday night according to Conrado Gimenez, who happens to be the head of the Fondacion Madrina NGO that has provided the residents with gas bottles, blankets, and food.

A similar case happened last month and it has been flagged by the UN human rights experts.