The Government of the Canary Islands published this Thursday the new Hydrological Plan of Lanzarote, after suspending the previous one to avoid sanctions from the European Union. The provision published in the BOC makes it clear that this new Hydrological Plan is "transitional" and must be replaced by a "new hydrological order". Specifically, it gives the Cabildo a period "not exceeding six months" to implement a new definitive Plan for the island, which must incorporate European regulations.
Lanzarote should have adapted its Hydrological Plan, which dates back to 2001, to the Water Framework Directive of the European Union of 2000, which focuses on the control and quality of water and, especially, on environmental measures. The deadline for this adaptation began with the entry into force of that European standard and concluded in 2009. However, in Lanzarote this adaptation has not yet occurred and the Government of the Canary Islands, through its Ministry of Territorial Policy, Sustainability and Security, suspended the plan "in order to avoid sanctions from the European Union for non-compliance with the deadlines."
The provision that the Ministry has published in the BOC, which makes the suspension effective and includes the new plan, explains that Europe has already opened that sanctioning procedure to Spain. It especially points out that this process could lead to sanctions (for Spain, but also for the Canary Islands) if the plans of the hydrographic demarcations are not modified "in an immediate term."
The document that was in force in Lanzarote until now was that of 2001 and should have been adapted years ago. In mid-2014, the new Plan was initially approved, but its processing had not concluded. In this sense, in the transitional document, to avoid a "duplication of evaluations" between both, what is established in the Environmental Report of the new Hydrological Plan, which was approved by the Cotmac last March, has been incorporated. The provision also establishes that the definitive plan must incorporate the content of the transitional plan.
The Consortium will continue to have the management of desalination "reserved"
This transitional plan establishes, as the previous document already did, that water desalination "is reserved and corresponds exclusively" to the Insular Water Consortium. Based on this premise, the Hydrological Plan establishes that "the installation of new desalination plants by private initiative will not be authorized or granted" and only one exception is contemplated, for "when the Consortium cannot supply water."
For the authorization of private desalination plants in these exceptional cases, different criteria will be taken into account, such as the location, the volume of production or its useful life, but also "the possibility of its integration into the island's hydraulic system."
The plan also stops to talk about the private desalination plants already existing on the island. Thus, it indicates that all desalination plants with authorization for self-consumption will retain their permit until the term that had been set in it, or "until the moment that is set, by agreement" between the Consortium and whoever manages the plant. In any case, the plan makes it clear that "at no time" may the "initial authorization period" be exceeded, so any extension of permits is ruled out.
