The Canarian Parliament has witnessed this Tuesday the first plenary session of the political year in which the socialist deputy, Marcos Bergaz, has asked the regional executive's water minister about the activation of additional provision number 64 of the Canarian budget for 2025 that allows increasing the economic resources to address the water crisis suffered by, among other islands, Lanzarote.
A provision that contemplates the possibility of enabling 15 million extra euros to increase the resources allocated to hydraulic investments or improvement of water quality. As well as increasing the economic resources aimed at addressing the water emergency with financing from “unforeseen income” or “drops” from other budget items.
The deputy himself recalled that the aforementioned provision was included in the budgets for 2024 and 2025 as a 'saving' forecast, aimed at correcting the scarce investments in water matters initially reflected in the Canarian accounts and that it is urgent to activate, even more so when Lanzarote and La Graciosa have recently extended their water emergency for six more months, via a decree from the vice president of the Island Water Council of Lanzarote, since 'the scenario in which we find ourselves is critical', as literally stated in said resolution”, Bergaz highlighted.
“This, together with the water cuts that occurred this August, -continued the deputy- and reproduced by the media with headlines such as 'Lanzarote wakes up with eighteen towns without water in the face of the indignation of its residents', or 'Residents of sixteen towns wake up this Friday without water in Lanzarote and La Graciosa', justify the immediate mobilization of the economic resources allowed by the aforementioned economic provision.”
For his part, the minister, Manuel Miranda, acknowledged that this exercise has not yet been activated, “we are waiting to see the state of budget execution for the application of the provision,” was his response.
Similarly, and addressing the Lanzarote deputy, the minister indicated that “you say that the situation is critical, and I cannot deny you the reason, the situation has been problematic, but the means are being put in place. In fact, those major problems that are occurring in Lanzarote, for example, have ceased to exist in Fuerteventura.”
“Your response is no, that the provision has not been activated, despite the fact that the scenario is critical, and not because the socialist group says so, but because the resolution to extend the water emergency of the vice president of the Island Water Council of Lanzarote says so, therefore, there is no time to lose,” stressed Marcos Bergaz, in his response to the minister.
Finally, as an example, Marcos Bergaz alluded to the enormous delay experienced in the conclusion and commissioning of the new north line Zonzamas - Arrieta pipeline, “one more reason not to leave for tomorrow what we can do today, whether when talking about works in progress, or the activation of the aforementioned additional provision and the economic resources that it allows to enable, since there is no time to lose,” concluded the parliamentarian for Lanzarote and La Graciosa.