The Government Council of the Canary Islands approved this Monday morning the draft decree by which urban viability is given to the sanitation and purification works in La Graciosa. The file, promoted by the Ministry of Territorial Policy, Territorial Cohesion and Water, suspends the current island and municipal planning, and establishes the corresponding transitional rules to be able to develop the project.
The document approved this Monday implies the suspension of planning only in the scope of action where the project will be developed, which will consist of the installation of new public infrastructures such as the sanitation network itself, pumping stations, the updating of the treatment plant, storage tanks and a sludge management system.
The Minister of Territorial Policy, Manuel Miranda, assured that "this is the definitive step that will allow us to finally unblock an action paralyzed since 2017, it was the commitment we made with the residents and businessmen of La Graciosa at the beginning of the legislature and we are doing everything possible to fulfill it, including the declaration of regional interest of the works, which will be the next step".
The suspended ordinance is the island plan of Lanzarote and the subsidiary rules of the municipality of Teguise. At the same time, the transitional substantive rules that will give viability to the execution of the sanitation and purification project, whose drafting is currently in the bidding period, are approved. These rules categorize the scope of action as rustic land for infrastructure protection, to cover the intervention.
The budgets of the autonomous community for 2025, currently in parliamentary processing, include an initial item of two million euros to face the start of the works. The implementation of the necessary infrastructures will be carried out both inside and outside the urban center of Caleta de Sebo. In addition to those included in the urban area, these works will have to be developed in the Llano de La Mareta, where the treatment plant is located; the connection road with Caleta de Sebo, to locate the necessary pipes; and in the surroundings of the urban center, where the implementation of pipes or other necessary elements is possible.
Commitment to residents and businessmen
Manuel Miranda recalled that among the commitments of the Government of the Canary Islands is to finance the cleaning of septic tanks and filtering wells, where wastewater is discharged, until the new sanitation network and the treatment plant are available. In this sense, on November 11, the Governing Council approved a budget modification to subsidize the Teguise City Council with 200,000 euros and provide coverage for a first phase of sanitation of these facilities. Another 400,000 euros are budgeted for 2025, which will allow to continue with these cleaning campaigns.
The heads of the Ministry of Territorial Policy, Territorial Cohesion and Water, with its highest responsible at the head, explained on August 27 to residents and businessmen the roadmap designed by the Government to definitively solve the problems of supply, sanitation and purification in La Graciosa.
Both projects, paralyzed since 2017, require a meticulous processing that provides legal certainty to the actions. The next step will be the declaration of work of general interest, in which the General Directorate of Water is already working. "All this so that by the end of 2026 La Graciosa has the aforementioned services and definitively leaves behind the problems it has been suffering from supply and purification for decades," Miranda concluded.