Arrecife has become the first municipality in the islands of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote to offer accessible facilities within public restrooms for people with ostomies. The Arrecife City Council has enabled an area in the El Reducto beach restrooms for people with ostomies to use.
These new facilities, pioneering in the eastern islands of the Canary Islands, were presented this morning by the mayor of Arrecife, Yonathan de León, and the councilor for Beaches and Environment, Davinia Déniz.
The presentation to the media was attended by the Supervising Nurse of the General Surgery and Digestive Unit of the Dr. Molina Orosa University Hospital, María Elisa Viñoly, and a Lanzarote patient with an ostomy, Carmen García Aguilar, who has had an ostomy for 16 years, who thanked the Arrecife City Council for leading these public facilities on the island.
The mayor emphasized that the City Council is "working, with more emphasis during this term, to advance in accessibility and inclusivity." "Until now, both residents and visitors to the island did not have adapted public restrooms, much less in beach areas. Arrecife wants to be a benchmark and I confirm here today that we are already working on new adaptations in other public spaces of the city," declared Yonathan de León.
Yonathan de León, accompanied by the Councilor for Beaches, Davinia Déniz, and the Supervising Nurse of the General Surgery and Digestive Unit of the Dr. Molina Orosa University Hospital, María Elisa Viñoly Torres, presented these new facilities this morning on El Reducto beach, which has the Blue Flag award. An adapted area next to the restrooms, which will be opened by the staff assigned to these restrooms during their public opening hours throughout the week.
The Supervising Nurse of the General Surgery and Digestive Unit of the Dr. Molina Orosa University Hospital, María Elisa Viñoly Torres, is one of the experts and leader of the guidelines for good clinical practices for patients with ostomies, and detailed to the media the needs of these patients, and the conditions that this type of facility should offer, such as those offered since this week by the public restrooms on El Reducto beach.
A patient from Lanzarote, with 16 years of ostomy, spoke at the presentation, who "thanked and congratulated the mayor and the Councilor for Beaches for this initiative." "Until now, Lanzarote did not offer public restrooms that allowed the use of people with ostomies," remarked Carmen García Aguilar, affected for 16 years, and one of the representatives of the group in the Canary Islands.
Davinia Déniz declared that "her Department is continuously improving the beaches of Arrecife, such as those that have been announced today." The Councilor for Beaches announced that "throughout 2025, the entire beach coastline of Arrecife will bring good news for residents and visitors, with the culmination of different projects that are being worked on."
Everyone has the daily need to go to the bathroom. For most citizens it is a routine act, compatible with going to the beach, going for a walk, going shopping or participating in recreational and festive activities in the cities. But the reality is much more complicated for people with ostomies, who have to eliminate their excrement or urine in a bag that they carry attached to the body.
For their needs and hygiene, they need an adapted restroom, accessible with adequate facilities, and there are only less than 100 places in the entire Spanish territory that have them in public restrooms. Since this week, Arrecife, the capital of Lanzarote, is one of those enclaves in the Spanish territory that has restrooms for people with ostomies. And it is the only city in the islands of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura that offers it on a beach, in addition.
Restrooms adapted for people with ostomies
These people need adapted restrooms to solve different intestinal or urological diseases, some people undergo an ostomy. There are many people who undergo an ostomy every year. In Spain there are a total of 70,000 people with ostomies and more than 13,000 new cases occur each year according to data from the Spanish Society of Expert Nursing in Stomatherapy (SEDE).
An ostomy is an artificial opening (stoma) surgically created from the body to the outside to allow the passage of urine and feces. It is used to treat certain diseases of the digestive or urinary systems.
"From the Arrecife City Council, within the actions to be a more accessible city, leads among the municipalities of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote (eastern islands of the Canary Islands) the creation of these areas in public restrooms next to the beaches," they concluded from the Consistory.