The beach of El Reducto, the main one of the capital of Lanzarote, has been closed to bathing for five months. Since mid-October, this natural space has kept bathing prohibited because its waters are contaminated by the presence of fecal bacteria.
The Water Consortium of Lanzarote, the company responsible for the management of the integral water cycle on the island, Canal Gestión, together with the Arrecife City Council, located last January the origin of contamination of the beach.
According to what the Minister of Water of the Cabildo de Lanzarote, Domingo Cejas, reported then, it was an old collector, more than 40 years old, which collects wastewater from several homes on Greco, Valencia streets and part of Valls de la Torre street. Apparently, this collector would have been disconnected. One of the hypotheses considered by the first institution is that it had been disconnected during the pedestrianization works of El Reducto.
During an interview with La Voz, Cejas has reported that they have already completed the transfer works that allow connecting the wastewater from this old collector with that of the current collector to prevent leaks. The work, valued at 15,000 euros, was awarded by urgent procedure. To the costs of these works have also been added the search efforts to detect the source.
The Councilor for Water has explained that the works are finished and the pumping system ready, awaiting that the company Endesa provides electricity to the space to put into operation the automatic pumping system. For the moment, an unblocking truck is taking care of emptying this collector daily to prevent leaks to the beach.
Although the launch has been delayed by approximately one month, Cejas has indicated that he hopes this space can lift the prohibitions before Easter, which begins next March 27. The Water Consortium is waiting for the pumping of the collectors to start in order to submit a report to Public Health, which gave the order not to reopen the beach until the source of contamination was addressed.
Months of search for the origin of the contamination
Initially, the Water Consortium considered that the source of contamination was in the area of Punta del Camello, next to the esplanade of the Cabildo de Lanzarote, where there are two unauthorized drains, managed by Canal Gestión and the responsibility of the Consortium, which discharge wastewater into the sea when the network is saturated.
After ruling out that the contamination came from this point, the possibility was raised that the contamination originated from a collector on Fred Olsen Avenue. To confirm this theory, they opened trenches in the sand of El Reducto to try to locate contaminated water. Those tests also yielded no results.
