The Lanzarote Consumers Association (Aculanza) has assured that the increase in the water rate that the Water Consortium is going to approve this Monday will be "almost 14 percent linearly". The president of the group, Fernando Jiménez, has called this measure a "robbery". "Someone is robbing us," he said on Radio Lanzarote.
And this Monday, starting at 10:00 a.m., the Lanzarote Water Consortium proposed to the General Assembly a "new update of the sanitation service fee", according to a statement from the Cabildo. This will mean an increase of "10 percent" in billing for drinking water consumption, "plus one euro per month as a maintenance fee".
For Jiménez, the increase will not only be 10 percent, but will "increase to 14 percent". "The Consortium takes us for fools, raising the rates again and again of a company that is a monopoly and that due to the mismanagement of a few, the 60,000 subscribers have to pay," he denounced.
"We are clear that there has been mismanagement in Inalsa and that those responsible are the ones who must contribute to the increase in water. This is unacceptable. It is not explained how a monopoly that gave profits enters into deficit and suddenly they want to update the rates", indicated the president of Aculanza.
Fernando Jiménez recalled that the quality of the water and the service "have deteriorated a lot" in the last year. Therefore, he does not understand how the Consortium can "dare" to raise its price on top of that. "So far this year, they have cut off our water 40 times. In the southern area, the quality is deplorable. And we have to pay more, let them explain it to us," Jiménez asked.
In this sense, he has demanded that the Consortium let "speak and vote" the trade union, business and consumer organizations. In addition, Fernando Jiménez would like to know "the opinion of the town councils, which must vote on this increase". "We all know that Yaiza is against it, that San Bartolomé owes nothing to Inalsa and that Teguise already abstained in the last session. I would like to know what the rest of the town councils will do," he said.
The Consortium's version
Despite this complaint from Jiménez, the Consortium has justified this increase in fees by saying that it responds "to compliance with the regulations that require covering production costs". According to the Consortium, the new sanitation service fee that will come into effect after its publication in the Official Gazette of Las Palmas will therefore go "from 0.47 to 0.52 euros per cubic meter linearly in all contracted sections, with the exception of retirees and large families, for whom there will be an 18 percent reduction per cubic meter".
On the other hand, the Consortium has also reported that a maintenance fee for the sanitation service of one euro per month has been introduced in all tariff modalities. "This update is intended to ensure that Inalsa covers its production costs as required by law and, therefore, the cause that motivated the request for cessation of activity submitted to the judge by the bankruptcy administrators disappears," he said in a statement.
