The Ministry of Ecological Transition of the Government of the Canary Islands has published the call for subsidies to improve supply and reduce losses in networks of small and medium-sized municipalities within the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.
José Antonio Valbuena, regional minister responsible for the Area, specified that "more than 5.7 million euros will be allocated to investments in supply systems to improve efficiency, reduce losses in distribution networks and repair and improve the collection, deposits and treatment facilities in small and medium-sized municipalities, which will translate into significant water and energy savings, and a better supply guarantee."
The projects eligible for subsidies through the call, which has already been published in the Official Gazette of the Canary Islands (BOC), must be aimed at works specifically aimed at improving and renovating local supply systems that serve small and medium-sized municipalities (collection, adduction and transport, deposits, treatment plants and distribution networks) and those aimed at reducing losses in the networks of these supply systems, saving water consumption and/or increasing the supply guarantee.
In particular, the works must refer to local supply systems that serve municipalities with a population of less than 20,000 inhabitants, and the actions must have the commitment of the administration that owns the system with the execution of the project and the subsequent operation of the works, as well as their conservation and maintenance.
The beneficiaries of the aid will be those with competence in supply matters in each territorial area, in accordance with the broad concept established by the regulatory bases of the call, which provides for various formulas to consider that such competence exists.
Deadlines and information to take into account
For its part, the deadline to submit applications will be from July 7 to September 7, 2022. Considering that the potential beneficiaries are only legal entities, they must do so through the procedure of the electronic headquarters of the Public Administration of the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands.
Applications may refer to projects started after February 1, 2020, and in any case the actions subject to financing must have been executed in more than 50% of the planned investment on December 31, 2023, and be fully completed before December 31, 2024.
The subsidizable object included in the applications to the call must meet the requirements applicable to the Next Generation EU funds and detailed in the bases and applicable regulations.
Finally, it is important to mention that the call is governed by the competitive concurrence regime, establishing the bases the criteria for the award of the same. The applications will be evaluated, applying these criteria, by an evaluation commission constituted by personnel assigned to the provisional units created in the Ministry of Ecological Transition, Fight against Climate Change and Territorial Planning of the Government of the Canary Islands, for the management of the Next Generation EU Funds assigned to this department.