A representation of the Lanzarote Water Consortium, headed by its president, Oswaldo Betancort, has taken possession this Tuesday of the Canal Gestión Lanzarote facilities in Punta de los Vientos to make effective the transfer of the integral water cycle service.
In this way, Canal Gestión Lanzarote ceases to provide service on the island after thirteen years managing the integral water cycle, as reported by the island corporation in a statement.
The subsidiary of Canal de Isabel II signed the contract on June 1, 2013, after a negotiated process following a public tender that was declared void, to carry out the management for a period of thirty years.
In an extraordinary session, the assembly of the Water Consortium unanimously agreed this Monday, with the absence of the representative of the Haría City Council, to terminate the contract and revert the service to public hands. Voting in favor were the president and two mayors from Coalición Canaria, one from the Partido Popular, two from the PSOE, and one from Unidos por Yaiza.
The act of taking possession implies assuming, by the Consortium, all facilities and infrastructures affected by the integral water cycle of Lanzarote and La Graciosa.
The Consortium's representation plans to draw up an inventory of the state of the facilities and infrastructures, the operating systems, the inventory of assets, the documentation, and the operating status of the desalination and treatment plants, warehouses, workshops, and vehicles, among other matters.
The Lanzarote Water Consortium assumes the staff of Canal Gestión, made up of more than 200 workers, excluding senior management, directors, or trusted personnel.
The Madrid-based company must hand over at this act of taking possession both the keys, codes, access, passwords, remote control systems, and computer platforms linked to the operation and management of the service, as well as the technical, operational, administrative, and economic documentation related to the service.
In the same way, it must make effective the transfer of customer data, supply points, status and conditions of contracts, billing and consumption history, and the current status of the meter park.
The Canary Islands Consultative Council recently issued a favorable opinion on the termination of the contract, concluding that the company's breaches are structural and persistent and demonstrate "a serious disturbance" of public service due to supply incidents and non-compliance with obligations related to operation and planned investments.
Canal Gestión Lanzarote, for its part, considers that the breaches are due to the inactivity of the Consortium and has formally initiated legal proceedings to request the termination of the concession contract for reasons attributable to the Lanzarote Water Consortium itself.
"After more than twelve years providing the service in a scenario of legal and technical hostility, Canal Gestión has decided to adopt this decision based on a technical-legal analysis that identifies critical and systematic breaches by the island water administration," the company states.
In 13 years, Canal Gestión Lanzarote has accumulated a debt of more than 75 million euros, mainly in the last five years. One of the major problems of the service lies in network losses, which exceed 55% of the desalinated water. This situation has caused continuous supply cuts in several areas of the island.
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