Canal Isabel II has announced that it will allocate more than 2,000 million euros to "guarantee and reinforce" the quality of the water service in the Community of Madrid.
The Governing Council of the community, presided over by Isabel Díaz Ayuso, learned this Wednesday of the report of the Strategic Plan for the period between 2025 and 2030 of the public company, which includes "a historic investment", where Canal will spend 56% more than the annual average of the last ten years on improvement works in the Spanish capital.
This announcement comes in the midst of the water crisis in Lanzarote, where the subsidiary of Canal Isabel II, Canal Gestión Lanzarote, announces daily cuts in different towns on the island due to problems in the management of the supply.
In addition, nearly 60% of the water that is desalinated on the island is lost in the island's network due to the poor condition of the pipes, and the purification systems are inefficient and cause discharges of sewage into the environment.
Despite this scenario of water crisis in Lanzarote, the company seeks to "ensure the supply of this asset" in Madrid, justifying "the population increase, the reduction of water resources, the increase in extreme weather phenomena and the approval of increasingly demanding state and European regulations."
Meanwhile, the annual accounts of Canal Gestión only foresaw an investment of 800,000 euros in Lanzarote for 2024. The subsidiary of the Madrid-based company on the island closed 2023, the last published accounts, with losses of 13 million euros and an accumulated 64 million until that same year.
In Lanzarote, public institutions have announced multi-million dollar investments to improve the service. For example, the Government Council of the Canary Islands approved a budget modification to increase the capacity of two desalination plants in Lanzarote by 10%.
Canal de Isabel II will "allocate more than 850 million euros" to the "expansion and improvement of water collection and treatment facilities" in Madrid. Of these, more than 450 million will be for the "renovation of pipes and other elements of the distribution network, in order to avoid losses and increase quality" in the Spanish capital. The public company will also invest money in adapting the treatment plants, which will have an allocation of 150 million.
In addition, it will allocate 800 million euros to urban drainage and wastewater treatment works. Of these, 230 million will be for new technologies that optimize treatment plants and another 500 million to modernize drainage and sanitation systems.
To conclude, the company intends for water rates to be "below the national average" and to "help vulnerable groups" with a "progressive adaptation" of the rate.
