Canal Gestión Lanzarote states that according to the water balance of Lanzarote and La Graciosa, the island's water network loses 61.3% of the drinking water that is produced on both islands. This translates into more than 16.5 million cubic meters leaving the desalination plants “and not reaching consumers.”
In addition, the company assures that of the more than 20 million euros invested in distribution networks, they have only been able to improve “13% of the network”. “The equation is simple: the more time passes without renovating the old pipes, the more breakdowns and leaks are recorded,” Canal Gestión points out.
Canal Gestión, on the occasion of World Water Day, "invites the population to reflect on the reality of a good that is so essential and basic for the development of life as water”. For this reason, the company wants to highlight “the high rates of non-revenue water (NRW) that are recorded in the supply network, as the biggest problem of the present and future that this Island faces.”
The company maintains that since 2018, when an NRW “of 51.83%” was recorded, the evolution of this index, identified by everyone as the non-revenue water that is lost in the network, has had “a clearly growing trend”. In addition, Canal Gestión assures that the network renovations carried out since it assumed the service as manager of the integral water cycle in 2013 “allowed to improve this index by just over 10.5% at the island level in five years, given that in 2013 it stood at 57.9%.”
Canal Gestión emphasizes that the greatest increase in NRW is suffered “from 2018”, coinciding with “the end of investments in network renovation”. “This fact demonstrates the vital importance for Lanzarote of replacing the supply network to avoid continuing to stress the system. And the fact is that today most of the 1,500 kilometers of pipes that make up the drinking water distribution network are more than 30 years old,” the company assures.
These data, according to the company, reinforce “the imperative need for the island as a whole, population, institutions and other agents, together with Canal Gestión Lanzarote, to open a reflection process that allows redirecting an incomprehensible situation in a Biosphere Reserve, in which more than half of the water that is produced is lost, evidencing environmental damage by not avoiding the emission of thousands of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.”
Water balance data
Canal Gestión points out that, in objective production and consumption data, the water balance shows that last year, and counting on the recovery process from the pandemic suffered worldwide, “the four plants managed by Canal Gestión Lanzarote produced a total of 27,152,578 cubic meters.” Of this production, they add that the 74,053 subscribers to the service consumed “10,485,897 cubic meters, drinking water that is billed through meters and the sale of tanks.”
The company points out that “more than 54% of consumption corresponds to domestic service, and just over 34% to industrial and tourist service.” The rest, they detail, is divided “between agricultural, livestock and corporate consumption”.
On the other hand, Canal Gestión assures that the municipalities of Arrecife, Tías and Teguise, in that order, “are the ones that registered the highest consumption in 2021, exceeding 2 million cubic meters”, in the case of the first two, and, approaching that amount, that of Teguise. Regarding consumption ratios, they maintain that they are followed by “Yaiza, San Bartolomé, Haría and Tinajo.”
Canal Gestión also highlights that until 2019 the municipality that topped the list “was Tías”. However, it moved to second place from 2020 “as a direct consequence of the pandemic and zero tourism.”
Finally, the company points out that in the balance by months, the months of highest consumption were “October and November, followed by the summer months.”
In relation to the water balance of reused water, that which is treated in treatment plants for a second use mainly for irrigation of gardens and plantations, Canal Gestión assures that it shows a production in 2021 of “2,579,920 cubic meters, with a consumption of almost 1,700,000 cubic meters, which causes an NRW of just over 34.5%.”