The Water Councillor of the Cabildo of Lanzarote and vice president of the Water Consortium of Lanzarote, Domingo Cejas, spoke this Tuesday on Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero to explain what is happening on El Reducto beach, the main beach of Arrecife, which has been closed to swimming for two weeks due to fecal water contamination.
Public Health analyzes the waters of El Reducto beach in three different locations: one in front of the Gran Hotel, another in front of the Diamar hotel, and a third at the exit of the collectors in Punta del Camello, next to the Cabildo de Lanzarote building.
Cejas explained that the discharge point causing high levels of the E. Coli bacteria, an organism present in the human intestine and other warm-blooded living beings that can cause diarrhea and infections, is the one in front of the Diamar hotel, on Avenida Fred Olsen.
In this place, according to the Minister of Water, the wastewater from a pumping station and a collector converge with rainwater, collected during the scarce rainy periods in Arrecife.
"We are seeing leaks because the pipe is under pressure, it is full and will surely leak, it will take time to leak that pipe," Cejas added. In this sense, he explained that the pipe should be empty, but nevertheless, it is stagnant. Thus, he added that this wastewater comes out when "rainwater comes and due to the drag" it is propelled towards the sea.
The Water councillor urged Canal Gestión, the company responsible for the integral water cycle on the island, this Monday to take action to empty this canal and recalled that it should only be used as a relief channel in the event of saturation of the network at the Las Bunganvillas station. Cejas asked them to "do everything they have to do".
"There are many cubic meters in that collector, which is a large collector and it is full," he continued. For this reason, he indicated that the solution is to start pumping these waters as soon as possible and send them to the Argana treatment plant.