The Councilor for Water of Lanzarote, Domingo Cejas, spoke this Thursday on Radio Lanzarote Onda Cero to respond to questions regarding the continuous water cuts on the island that on Wednesday affected 37 towns.
Regarding the water supply cuts that occurred this Wednesday on the island, the councilor stated that "the problem was compounded by the breakdown that occurred on Saturday in Lanzarote 4 and was completely repaired on Monday afternoon, which meant a decrease in production, but on Tuesday afternoon Red Eléctrica España made a stop in the supply that provides Canal Gestión, which caused production to fall by 80%".
"I was informed of the cuts two hours and a bit after they occurred, I found out at eight o'clock at night as a councilor when they already saw that the situation was getting complicated," Cejas reveals.
"The company was without electricity for two hours, which meant that when reassembling all the equipment, pump by pump, until 4 in the morning 100% of the production was not running," he says.
In addition, according to the councilor, the water took so long to reach the houses this Wednesday because "the entire main network was emptied and everything was left dry, which meant that yesterday it was not possible to normalize the situation throughout the day until the supply was opened to all the towns, and it takes longer to reach the high parts because the pipe networks that are lower have to be filled and then pass to those that are higher," he explains.
"In Canal Gestión they thought that the breakdown would not worsen so much but then they saw the dimension it had," Cejas comments. For his part, the Councilor for Water wanted to highlight the work of the company's professionals. "We must thank the workers themselves for their effort because they are also suffering and those who were off had to return to work to help the rest of their colleagues. This situation that we are suffering is unbearable," he says.
On the other hand, Cejas commented that "this Wednesday I had to start investigating to get in touch with Red Eléctrica and with the person responsible for the issue of interruptibility because it is a peninsular company and they do not really know what we are suffering here with the water and things can be done differently by talking and making us understand," he states.
Regarding the improvement of communication about the water cuts that Lanzarote suffers, the councilor said that "we are considering the approach of finding a way to be much more agile so that citizens have the most accurate knowledge possible of the information regarding the problems that arise with the water".
Canal Gestión is denying the air valves because they can be used to extract water without it passing through the meter
Regarding the entry of air into the pipes that increases the price of the bill, "putting some valves so that air comes out is done when it is verified that this really happens and surely it happens when the network is emptied and filled again. I think that Canal Gestión will start receiving claims with this issue and what we value is putting that type of air valves in the main networks because this avoids putting thousands of air valves in each independent meter," Cejas explains.
In this issue, there are customers who assure that the company Canal Gestión "has denied some of them these air valves". "It is still a cut that has to be made to a pipe before reaching the meter and they are being denied because that cut can be used to extract water without it passing through the meter and if it is verified that there is really air, the management of the air valve is not charged, but if it is verified with the air valve that there is no air, the placement process is charged," he clarifies.
"To have the discount on the bill for the entry of air, what we will propose to Canal Gestión is that they make a balance of what you normally pay. If in the next receipt there is a sudden increase, then that extra expense should be reduced and that it is enough, for example, with a video that the citizen records where the meter is seen running when water does not arrive and in this way, the client does not spend money on hiring a plumber to prove that they are being overcharged," he declares.
Ineffective solutions to continuous breakdowns
In many areas of the island, breakdowns in some streets usually occur regularly, to which the water company sees as a solution to go as many times as necessary, which causes a fairly high economic expense. "From the first minute I entered the position, I said that, if I have a street that has been repaired 20 times in a year, it is more profitable to build that street again and I have told Canal Gestión because they are spending a lot of money on going many times to fix the same breakdown," says the councilor.
"People do not understand that asphalt works and improvements to sidewalks are being done and that the underground pipes are not being improved and we are trying to make Canal Gestión understand it," he concludes.