Podemos Canarias has presented the United Nations special rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment with a report on "the serious social, ecological, and territorial deterioration" that it believes tourism is causing in the islands, which could lead to "substantial" sanctions.
The Secretary General of Podemos Canarias and Member of Congress, Noemí Santana, reported this Monday on the complaint filed in Geneva (Switzerland) last week to the rapporteur for this area, Astrid Puentes, who they hope will travel to the islands to verify the more than one hundred "attacks" against the environment and heritage of the Canary Islands that are detailed in the report.
Santana explained that his party has approached these international bodies to convey its concern about the situation on the islands, which has already been communicated to the town councils, island councils, the Autonomous Community, the central government, and the EU
The only recourse left was to go to "this last resort" to "seek political accountability" from those who have allowed "these environmental attacks in the Canary Islands," he stressed.
The report includes the illegal dumping for which the archipelago has been sanctioned on several occasions by the Union and how tourism has "precarioused" employment in the tourism sector and has turned housing into a problem because a large part of it is allocated to holiday homes or seasonal rentals for tourists, the Podemos leader has pointed out.
In addition, he has stated that he is being informed about, among other matters, the macro-tourism project of Cuna del Alma, in the south of Tenerife, in an area where archaeological remains of aboriginal sites are found; about the irregularities they warn of in the construction of a new tourist complex in Mogán, Gran Canaria, as well as the "attacks" suffered by the Corralejo Dunes, in Fuerteventura
Those responsible for all of this have faced no legal or economic consequences, Noemí Santana emphasized.
The councilor for Strategic Development, Sustainability, and Energy at the Las Palmas City Council, Gemma Martínez, has stressed that tourism in the Canary Islands has become an "extractive industry" and has blamed the right-wing for the "colonialist concept of CC and the PP" for putting the territory at the "benefit of everyone except the population".
Martínez has stated that citizens have the right to enjoy a clean environment, water, and territory, as well as their heritage, culture, and history, in light of what is happening in Cuna del Alma
He also emphasized how it is possible that a country like Brazil, seventeen times larger than Spain, is visited by 9.2 million tourists, while islands like the Canary Islands receive 18 million, and politicians still attend the International Tourism Fair in Madrid to attract more, when what is needed is a tourism moratorium.
Canary Islands needs quality tourism that helps respect heritage because the archipelago "has a limit," it has been stressed"There are national, international, and European laws for the protection of the environment and water that must be complied with," he indicated.