The deputy for the islands of Lanzarote and La Graciosa, and island president of Nueva Canarias-Bloque Canarista (NC-bc), Yoné Caraballo, has urged Lanzarote society to take advantage of the upcoming debate that opens with the Island Plan document, to set limits on population growth and strengthen essential public services.
For Caraballo, this debate "should be an opportunity to establish the parameters that we must give ourselves as an island society from here to several decades, with special attention to population growth." According to the deputy, "the rate of growth that the Canary Islands, and especially Lanzarote, has is unsustainable and is causing us serious problems of public resources, social welfare and quality of life."
"Any island society would have serious problems to sustain over time a growth rate of more than 3,000 inhabitants/year, in a limited territory and with infrastructure problems of all kinds," says Caraballo, who proposes "going to the root of the problem, which is none other than the "pull effect" generated by the current economic model of mass tourism where every year arrival records are broken."
"If every year we give 700, 1,000 or 5,000 new licenses for tourist beds, we will be sending a message that you can come here to work and live," adds the Canarist, who considers that, with the current tensions in public services and housing that exist in Lanzarote, "working on the island is not synonymous with living well, but with living as you can."
He recalls that Lanzarote has grown by around 110% in 20 years, "affecting the provision of services such as public education, health or housing, generating stress on road, airport and water infrastructures."
"The Island Plan must be the regulation that puts order and head to this lack of control," clarifies Yoné Carabllo, who is "not very optimistic with the promises emanating from CC in reference to the fact that no more island territory will be consumed.
"We will see what these proclamations are, because what Oswaldo Betancort and CC have accustomed us to is empty announcements without materialization of anything," Caraballo concludes.
