For decades, obtaining water in Lanzarote required effort, money, and constant adaptation to scarcity. That is why, the news published on October 15, 1952, about the Famara galleries raised so many expectations: underground water capture was beginning to yield results, and the arrival of water to Arrecife seemed increasingly close. The figures disseminated fueled the hope for a profound change on an island where every liter had a value far beyond its price.
The chronicle, signed by Guillermo Topham Guito and published in the section "Falange in Lanzarote" of the newspaper Falange, reported on the progress of a work destined to transform the capital's supply. To understand its importance, one must return to a reality where water conditioned food, agriculture, economic activity, and domestic life. Obtaining it could require travel, pack animals, and entire days of effort.
An island that measured life in liters
Scarcity predated the galleries and the first supply networks. For centuries, underground reservoirs, cisterns, wells, and springs allowed for the utilization of an irregular resource, dependent on rainfall that did not always arrive when most needed. Storing rainwater was a basic necessity: the availability of water during dry months depended on it.
In the mid-20th century, the situation reached a particularly serious dimension. The research by Francisca María Perera Betancort, included in "Historia del agua en Lanzarote" (History of Water in Lanzarote), indicates that Arrecife had an approximate supply of five liters per inhabitant per day. Water reached high prices: the cubic meter normally cost 25 pesetas and, during extreme droughts, could reach 80.
The difficulty did not only affect the capital. In various towns, families had to travel to places where water was available and return with the amount they could carry. Camels, donkeys, and other pack animals were part of that daily economy, while many people walked roads with containers on their shoulders or heads. The lack of fodder weakened the animals and further increased transportation costs.
The consequences extended to agriculture and livestock. Without sufficient water, crops were exposed to droughts, livestock needed increasingly scarce resources, and industries found it difficult to maintain their activity. The problem was not limited to domestic consumption: it compromised a large part of the island's economy and worsened the living conditions of a population for whom emigration was, at times, a way out.
In that context, regularly utilizing the water from the Famara massif meant attempting to modify material conditions that had conditioned Lanzarote's development for generations.
A project that took years to become a reality
The idea of utilizing Famara's waters did not originate in 1952. The massif already provided water through springs and collection points, but the challenge was to obtain a sufficient flow and transport it to Arrecife through infrastructure capable of sustaining the supply.
On January 6, 1946, the Teguise City Council unanimously agreed to promote the water supply from Famara to the capital. In February, the Minister of Public Works, José María Fernández-Ladreda, visited Lanzarote, and in August of that year, final approval was granted to the supply project, with an initial budget of 1.8 million pesetas.
The execution did not proceed without difficulties. In January 1947, the order to auction the works was published, and in April, the Council of Ministers authorized their execution. Initial problems in awarding the contracts delayed an intervention that required drilling the mountain, installing pumping equipment, and building a pipeline to the capital.
The budget later rose to 3.5 million pesetas, with a planned financing of 75% by the Ministry of Public Works and 25% by the Cabildo of Lanzarote. The investment reflects the scale of an action that was not limited to finding water: it had to be extracted, lifted from the Risco, and conducted to the reservoirs of Arrecife.
The infrastructure had to overcome the massif's elevation difference through pumping systems and then resolve the transport and storage. Each phase was essential to turn the water available in the mountain into a resource accessible to the population.
Work inside the mountain
Behind the budgetary figures there was physical work that deserves a central place in this story. Perera Betancort describes squads of workers, many of them from the municipality of Teguise, who drilled the rock with explosives and machinery in particularly harsh conditions.
The hardness of the stone forced the use of dynamite charges to make way. As the galleries advanced, ventilation became more complicated and the gases from the explosions took longer to escape. The historian collects testimonies about workers who suffered dizziness and even lost consciousness, while their companions had to carry them outside so they could breathe fresh air.
That sub-horizontal drilling, carried out with the means available at the time, represented an effort that cannot be summarized in budgets or excavated meters. The water that later reached Arrecife was also the result of the work of those who ventured into the mountain and faced the risks of a highly difficult undertaking.
The history of Famara is not understood solely through administrative decisions and public investments. It must also recognize the workers who made the collection and conduction of water possible under conditions that historical testimonies describe as particularly demanding.
The news that announced 35 liters per inhabitant
On October 15, 1952, the newspaper Falange published the headline "Three hundred tons daily are being produced by the new Famara galleries." The report by Guillermo Topham Guito announced that water would reach Arrecife in the spring of 1953 and proposed a supply of 35 liters per inhabitant per day.
The figure contrasted with the five liters estimated to be available per person per day in the capital. The expectation was considerable: multiplying that supply by seven meant imagining a substantial improvement in domestic hygiene, food preparation, and daily needs.
It is important to distinguish between the announced production, the planned supply, and the actual supply that each resident could receive. The 300 tons daily corresponded to the figure disseminated by the press in October 1952; the 35 liters constituted a forecast, not a guarantee that each household would effectively have that amount.
The conduction and the reservoirs had to complete their function, and the distribution required its own organization. The work was advancing towards its objective, but it still remained to be resolved how to get the water to the population and under what conditions the service would be provided.
The first jet reached Arrecife
On June 19, 1953, at 1:45 p.m., the first flow from the Famara galleries reached the Maretas del Estado, according to the chronology of Memoria Digital de Lanzarote, which refers to the information published by Antena on June 23 of that year.
The event had a collective dimension. On June 27, the Water Festival was celebrated, with various events and the blessing of a fountain in the Muelle Chico. The arrival of the flow represented an important advance for Arrecife, which began to have a new supply source conducted from the massif.
But the inauguration did not mean that the water immediately reached the taps in homes. Public distribution began on July 30, with supply points in the Muelle Chico and La Vega. The documentary chronology confirms that the water was delivered in cans and containers, and that carts and trucks were also used to transport it.
Residents had to adapt to the schedules and the designated places to collect it. The arrival of the flow to the Maretas del Estado had resolved a fundamental part of the problem, but domestic supply still required new infrastructure.
In September 1953, the Cabildo commissioned the drafting of a project to conduct the water to the cisterns of the urban center. In October, the domestic distribution project was signed, with a budget of 373,472.34 pesetas. The arrival of water to the capital and its availability within homes were, therefore, distinct stages of a transformation that required time and investment.
The drought tested the solution again
The Famara galleries changed the history of Arrecife's supply, but they did not eliminate Lanzarote's hydraulic vulnerability. Production was limited by the capacity of the intakes and demand included the population, livestock, ports, and industrial activities.
The clearest proof arrived in 1957. The lack of rain forced a reduction in supply and a renewed request for water transport by tanker ships. Historical research records an estimated island demand of about 435 tons daily and indicates that the galleries' flow increased to around 170 tons daily in April. The difference remained considerable.
In April, rationing was reduced to five liters per person per day. Navy ships and mail boats contributed to the supply, but the scarcity continued to affect the population, agriculture, and livestock.
The 1957 crisis helps understand the limits of the promise announced five years earlier. The galleries had opened a new way to obtain water, but they could not guarantee a sufficient and permanent supply on their own on an island exposed to prolonged droughts.
The memory of a promise
The news from October 1952 documents a moment when a long-awaited project seemed to herald a transformation of daily life. The provision of 35 liters per inhabitant summarized the aspiration to leave behind a reality where obtaining water could require hours of effort and considerable expense for families.
The arrival of the first flow turned that expectation into a tangible reality. There was celebration, public distribution points were set up, and a new era began for Arrecife. However, the subsequent crisis showed that finding water and guaranteeing supply were different problems.
The history of Famara brings together the effort of a population accustomed to living with scarcity, the work of those who drilled the Risco, and the construction of an infrastructure that represented a decisive advance without definitively solving the problem.
Famara did not end Lanzarote's thirst, but it changed the history of its supply. The news published that October allows us to recall the moment when hope began to take shape and remember how much effort it took to bring water from the mountain to the capital.
Documentary sources
• Perera Betancort, Francisca María. "History of Water in Lanzarote," in The Culture of Water in Lanzarote. Government of the Canary Islands and Cabildo of Lanzarote, La Laguna, 2006.
• Digital Memory of Lanzarote. Documentary catalog "Water": news of October 15, 1952, on the production of the Famara galleries.
• Digital Memory of Lanzarote. Chronology of June 19, 1953 (arrival of water to the Maretas del Estado), June 27, 1953 (Water Festival) and July 30, 1953 (start of public distribution).
• Antena, May 14, 1957, "Our water problem," cited by Perera Betancort.
• Official State Gazette, January and April 1947, provisions on the auction and authorization of the Arrecife water supply works.
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