Agencies/ Newsroom
In a plenary session held this Wednesday in the Regional Chamber on tropical storm Delta, the President of the Canary Islands Government stressed that the objective of the regional Executive must be that the population, services and institutions of the Archipelago are "better prepared" if natural disasters were to occur again.
Adán Martín assured that his cabinet "has already taken the necessary steps, commissioning an audit, initiating inspection actions of maintenance and preparing a draft regulation for the development of the Canary Law." He also presented two proposals to submit them to the consideration of the Chamber: the improvement of the detection systems of possible natural disasters and the improvement of the electrical system.
For this, he indicated, it is essential that a service be formed that brings together the data and knowledge about these phenomena in this entire area of the Atlantic and northwest Africa that is available to the Canary Institute of Marine Sciences, the universities, the Government, the farmers, etc.
The president refused to defend the management of the crisis carried out by Unelco for considering it "unfortunate" and for understanding that the company "underestimated at first" the damages produced in its networks by the storm. He also highlighted that the company itself "failed to meet the deadlines it had planned for the replacement of the supply, more with an excessive voluntarism than with a real vision of its possibilities."
Measures
Among the aid to be granted, Martín highlighted those of the affected families in personal damages (up to 17,000 euros) and those who have suffered a cut in supply of more than one day.
Aid will also be given for the repair of significant damage to homes and for consumer organizations for advice in case of claim for prolonged loss of supply.
Other compensations will be directed to agriculture, livestock, fishing, industry, commerce, business associations and repair of municipal infrastructures and island road network.
Effects in Lanzarote
Regarding the subsidies planned for Lanzarote to face the material losses caused by Delta, the city councils have coordinated with the Cabildo a compilation document that has been transferred to the Canary Government with the hope that the situation will be resolved in three or four months.
In this regard, according to the data provided on Radio Lanzarote by José Torres Stinga, mayor of Haría, the technicians estimate that the damages reach a value of "between 1.8 and 2 million euros only in municipal assets, for the 4 or 5 million losses for the entire municipality".
The landscape and the centuries-old vegetation in the Lanzarote municipality most affected by Delta have suffered considerably, and the maritime station of Órzona "flew away".
"The boundaries of the Gallo mountain have disappeared after the entire Máguez area was hit by the storm at about 166 kilometers per hour," he said.
"We have 20 kilometers of public power lines on the ground, the football field, the Haría square and the cemetery are destroyed, and in Máguez the court and the casino have suffered serious damage," he added.
For his part, the mayor of Teguise, Juan Pedro Hernández, commented that in his municipality "there are agricultural areas such as those of Tao that are a pity because they have been seriously affected."
Criticism from the PP
For his part, the Secretary of Organization of the Popular Party (PP), Larry Álvarez, denounced the "contempt" of the public televisions of the Islands for the Parliament, and criticized that neither the Canary Television nor Spanish Television broadcast live the parliamentary plenary session this Wednesday.
"The electrical blackout that thousands of Canarians had to suffer for five days and five nights has been followed by an information blackout about their political responsibilities. After the third-world darkness, the darkness of public media that turn their backs on Parliament in one of the most relevant debates of the Legislature," commented Larry Álvarez.
The Popular Parliamentary Group affirms that it formally requested Televisión Española in Canarias (TVE-C) and Televisión Canaria to transmit, live, the parliamentary debate in which the management of the Government of the Canary Islands on the crisis caused by the storm unleashed between November 28 and 29 is examined, and which is being held at this time in the Regional Chamber.
Álvarez stressed that "probably, there will not be a more important parliamentary debate than this in the entire Legislature" and criticized that "the political leaders of the two public channels have disrespected the Canarians and the professionals of both channels."
