The Government of the Canary Islands has enabled an extraordinary credit of 15 million euros to provide financial support to the three islands in water emergency, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote and Tenerife, and to "complement the budgetary effort made by their respective councils in the current year about to end".
The decision, adopted at the proposal of the Minister of Territorial Policy, Territorial Cohesion and Water, Manuel Miranda, is based on "the activation of the seventieth additional provision of the current Budget Law, which foresaw this extraordinary possibility to respond to the difficulties generated by the drought and the deficit in water production".
Councilor Manuel Miranda expressed his satisfaction "in fulfilling the commitment we made last year around this time in the drafting of the budget law of the autonomous community, and being able to finally increase the resources invested this year by another fifteen million more to alleviate as much as possible the financial difficulties of those councils that have been forced to declare a water emergency".
These fifteen million euros will be allocated to a total of five projects on the aforementioned islands, through grants to island administrations. Thus, the Lanzarote Water Consortium will receive 5 million for the renovation of racks in the Díaz Rijo desalination plant, which will allow it to continue increasing its production capacity. The Tenerife Island Water Council will be the recipient of another 5 million, which it will invest in the implementation of tertiary treatment in the Buenos Aires treatment plant, to improve the supply of regenerated water between Santa Cruz and the San Lorenzo Valley, in the south of the Island.
The Cabildo of Fuerteventura will allocate the 5 million that will be transferred to it by the regional executive to a new regulating reservoir in La Lajita, and to the improvement of the distribution network in Corralejo.
Manuel Miranda recalled that "during 2024 resources from the initial budget of the General Directorate of Water have been enabled to cover different projects, which total almost 9 million euros." Specifically, budget modifications have been made for supply improvements in the north of Gran Canaria (one million euros); the improvement of the Punta Brava emissary, in Tenerife (2.7 million); the supply of Puerto del Rosario, in Fuerteventura (2.6 million); the San Blas pumping station, in Candelaria, Tenerife (1.7 million); and three other modifications for supply in Valverde (El Hierro), sanitation in La Frontera (El Hierro) and well cleaning in La Graciosa, which total 900,000 euros.
At the same time, the budget has been increased by another 17 million euros. Two million to "increase water production in Lanzarote by 10% and these 15 million to activate the seventieth additional provision of the budgets of the autonomous community of the year 2024".
Manuel Miranda recalled that "the island councils have quantified the projects to be proposed of general interest to the State at more than 1,400 million euros, which will be part of the negotiation of a future agreement on hydraulic works." This agreement "is essential to continue completing the integral water cycle in the Canary Islands," Miranda concluded.
