The City Council of the Royal Villa of San Miguel Arcángel de Teguise wanted to recognize with one of the distinctions contemplated in its Regulations of Honors, Distinctions and Ceremonial, the valuable contribution of José and Manuel Díaz Rijo, brothers who launched the first desalination plant in Europe that converted brackish water into water for human consumption in the 60s of the last century XX.
The mayor of Teguise, Oswaldo Betancort, presented the Silver Medal and Parchment to the relatives of the honorees, who signed the Book of Honors, and expressed his sincere gratitude, "which materializes in the public recognition of the Municipal Corporation that I preside over," he said, "hoping that the honors that correspond to the Díaz Rijo brothers from the island will not be long in coming, and that, to this Silver Medal of the Royal Villa de Teguise, and to the street that is labeled with their name in Arrecife, the naming of Favorite Sons of the island or the posthumous delivery of the Gold Medal of the Canary Islands will be added," Betancort said in his speech, in which he pledged to "propose a recognition that is fair to grant to his memory if my new destiny as a public servant leads me to the island administration."
The solemn act, introduced by the expert in Institutional Relations and Protocol, María del Pino Fuentes de Armas, and framed in the program of the 50 years of the birth of Costa Teguise, a town considered the flagship of tourism on the island of Lanzarote, and the engine of the main industry of the archipelago, was presided over by Jorge Díaz and Adriana Díaz, grandchildren of Manuel Díaz Rijo; Miguel Ángel and José Carlos Díaz, sons of José Díaz Rijo; the Official Chronicler of the Villa de Teguise, Francisco Hernández Delgado; the Accidental Secretary of the Corporation, Onelia Leticia Pérez Betancort and the Mayor President, Oswaldo Betancort García.
The interventions of the night, either as a biographical review of both distinguished, or as an emotional sketch, were musically accompanied by the pianist Natalia Nikolaeva, born in Crimea and resident between Lanzarote and Berlin, who selected classical works of great strength and beauty for the musical intervals.
Sketch of José Díaz Rijo
José Díaz Rijo was born on November 25, 1921 in La Vegueta, in Lanzarote, and got up early - you always get up early for that appointment - on October 21, 1997, the date of his death, to move away definitively from this world.
He was the son of José Díaz Santana and Rosalía Rijo Rocha, he lived a few years on the island and went to Madrid to expand his training. He married María de los Ángeles Laccourreye Rodríguez on June 19, 1952, and they had four children: José Carlos, (today with us); Enrique, already deceased; María de los Ángeles and Miguel Ángel, who also accompanies us.
He graduated in Law and Political Science from the Complutense University 1940-1945, in Madrid, he did his law practice (two years at that time) in the office of Don Gregorio Peces Barba, father of Gregorio Peces Barba HIJO, who was Rector of the Carlos III University and President of the Congress of Deputies, among other positions.
He founded his own law firm and keeps it open until his retirement, being a legal advisor to several companies and clients, holding in some the position of secretary of the board of directors and legal representative.
José Díaz Rijo longed for these islands, as evidenced by the fact that he was a Founding and Numbered Member of the Canarian Home of Madrid, of which he was later Secretary for many years, but above all he was in love with the island of volcanoes, being one of the promoters, together with his brother Manuel, of the First desalination plant in Lanzarote.
The Díaz Rijo, Manuel and created Termoeléctrica Lanzarote SA, known as Termolanza, which would install the first drinking water plant for urban use in Europe on the island. In 1964 the plant was put into operation in the Punta Grande area and a year later the "miracle" occurred: the people of Lanzarote had running water in their homes.
It was a milestone that marked a before and after, as it put an end to years of drought and immigration of the people of Lanzarote, who had to abandon their land in the face of the serious consequences of the lack of water.
A friend since childhood of César Manrique, who was a witness at his wedding, in the 70s he intervened as a promoter, with other illustrious and local Lanzarote people, in the creation of the Bodegas Mozaga, thus alleviating the serious problem of the vine that was in crisis at that time due to the abandonment of the vineyards due to the lack of economic performance of the crop.
He also made an incursion into politics, as a candidate for the Senate for Lanzarote, for the Democratic and Social Center party (CDS) in 1982.
Agustín de la Hoz wrote: "The existence of water, on an island that did not know it except for rain, gave rise to the exodus of the aborigines towards Famara, continuing the transhumance until almost our days, while wells and more wells were opened next to the sea, to supply at all times, the slow caravans of dromedaries, wandering through the sore and dry landscape like a desert tongue..."
And it is there, in Famara, in El Risco, in El Río, in La Caleta, what does it matter!, in the breeze that enters through Famara, where the ashes of Don José and his wife, María de los Ángeles, were thrown, on his island and in the salty sea that helped to sweeten to quench the thirst of an island, contributing to change its history and its destiny.
Sketch of Manuel Díaz Rijo
Manuel Díaz Rijo was an atypical naval engineer, born in La Vegueta in 1927, he moved very young to Madrid, with his family, and obtained his degree in 1954, becoming involved in research and teaching, having among his achievements the having applied his multiple knowledge and his clear mind in fighting, against all odds, to install a water desalination plant on his native island, in the early 60s.
Díaz Rijo contemplated the island as a kind of ship anchored in the Atlantic, in which to apply the desalination solutions that he himself supervised as a naval engineer in the hydrodynamic experience channel of El Pardo. The entity supervised prototypes from the shipyards of Franco's Spain, which was committed to this activity, and even ships from world powers.
The young engineer from Lanzarote always said he was "committed" to his island, from his privileged professional situation. So he took advantage of contacts with the United States, through the desalination projects of the State Department of the Kennedy era, especially in the military field, for his race with the USSR, but also for civil use (he had ceded treatment plants to Israel and installed another in Guantanamo), and traveled "with his precarious English" to New York and met with officials of the Westinghouse Electric Co, which manufactured the plants, getting them to finance the idea.
The reaction on the island was, on the contrary, of rejection and only the mayor of Arrecife, Ginés de la Hoz, gave his help to the project. The widespread comment was that the water "was going to taste like a goby" and that Díaz Rijo's dreams were "little less than illusions." Thus, the engineer was forced to assume the potabilization of water and created for this purpose, together with his brother José, the company Termolansa in 1961. He had no help from the Cabildo of Lanzarote, assuring some voices that the 50 million pesetas needed were "five times the budget of the Cabildo", but others pointed to the interests of the island society of the mid-twentieth century, with enormous speculation about the land with water and leaders interested in controlling the distribution. Not even the National Institute of Industry (INI) helped, as the Cabildo did not do so, which could have advanced in development to the rest of the archipelago.
After many difficulties, finally what was the first dual plant in Europe (water and electricity) arrived in 1964 and the following year supplied Arrecife.
Rijo's friendship with the other island hero, César Manrique, bore fruit, bringing drinking water to the tourist centers and, in 1966, to the Fariones hotel, with which tourism began in Lanzarote.
We are facing the biography of an engineer with the soul of a scientist, who marked a before and after in the history of Lanzarote.