The president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Oswaldo Betancort (CC), has asked the Canarian Government this Monday to promote a specific law, similar to the one approved for the 'Green Islands' (El Hierro, La Gomera and La Palma), in order to guarantee the sustainable future of the eastern axis formed by Fuerteventura and Lanzarote.
This was requested in the forum 'Islands with a future' organized by Canarias 7, where, after being presented by the Canarian president, Fernando Clavijo (CC), the president of the Cabildo of Fuerteventura, Lola García (CC), and he have detailed the challenges that these islands have to face in favor of a population and tourist growth that does not compromise the well-being and quality of life of its inhabitants.
"Less is more. We are the island that grows the least and invoices the most" in tourist terms, and that, in addition, has managed to stop its population from increasing by 4,000 people a year to gaining 2,500, which is intended to result in the improvement of the quality of life of families, said Betancort.
According to the leader of CC, Lanzarote, is not only fashionable, but it works", a present success that has advocated for "controlling so that the generational change of the island has opportunities for economic development and, above all, quality of life".
Betancort has championed the need to modernize all obsolete regulations, such as the Island Plan of Lanzarote, of 1991, to control the growths that compromise its future and do not properly protect its unique spaces, such as La Geria, where his government plans to approve a special plan in this legislature.
Regarding the update of the Island Plan, which is also intended to be approved before the 2027 elections, he has reported that it will include the ordering of the coastline and will promote "a tourist model where less is more" and that involves attracting more qualified visitors "who pay for the quality of life" of the residents of Lanzarote, but not through an ecotax "that goes to an Administration that cannot then execute" those resources.
With one of the largest four and five-star hotel plants in the Canary Islands, Lanzarote has already managed to "remove from the market, without criticism from businessmen" 2,000 beds, 137 vacation homes and 104,000 square meters susceptible to being used in new accommodation construction, Betancort has asserted.
He has also defended the housing policy developed in the last two years by his government, stating that he has "materialized 14 million euros" in the purchase of land and 42 homes in Playa Blanca, which he has transferred to the Government of the Canary Islands so that they can give them to the families of Lanzarote under a rental regime.
"We have been the only island that has raised the percentage of the young rental voucher and we are going to continue buying fixed assets. In Lanzarote there are 20,000 empty homes and the Cabildo has to be part of the solution," he said.
The president of the Cabildo of Majorera, Lola García, has defended in this forum that hers is an island of the future, although she has stressed that its future cannot be improvised, hence she has stressed the commitment of her government to have good territorial planning, of all environmental issues, with respect to all natural and protected spaces, with the ultimate purpose of "not making mistakes" and avoiding suffering to its population of the island.
In this way, she has also alluded to the need that Fuerteventura has to have good planning of its basic infrastructures to improve the quality of the people who live on the island, whose Cabildo, aware of its power, "not only in the sun and beach tourism sector", has made a clear commitment to innovation and aerospace technology through the Technology Park.
Lola García has stressed that the commitment to the improvement of hydraulic, social-health, educational and health infrastructures that her government is leading cannot be "for four years", but must have continuity in future legislatures.
"It has to be long-term, we are talking about 20 to 30 years, hence the importance of taking out all the planning that we have to do in Fuerteventura, a consensus planning, especially with the citizens," she added.
Regarding the lack of housing, she said that the Cabildo, together with the city councils and the Canarian Housing Institute, is working to "speed up all the paralyzed partial plans" so that they can go ahead.
To this is added all the land that has been made available to build both the Canarian Government and the city councils, although she has admitted that the rise of vacation homes has caused a great impact on the island "because many buildings that were dedicated to long-term rental" are now dedicated to this new accommodation modality.
For newly built homes, the Cabildo of Fuerteventura has contributed five million euros and has also promoted the rehabilitation of these buildings in Puerto del Rosario or the Old Town of Corralejo, where their surroundings have also been improved.
García has also alluded to the water emergency that Fuerteventura has recently overcome, where she has advocated continuing to work on this planning in which progress has been made, going from a production of 34,000 m3 to almost 50,000 m3, which means that "enough water is produced to reach all corners" of the island.
We have also increased the deposits to store that water and we have replaced the distribution network and the transport network, since the losses we had reached almost 50%.
"A very important change is taking place, there are still cuts and incidents and we have to continue working and putting in financing. We have invested almost 60 million in these two years through the works that we have declared as an emergency and, thanks to that, we have been able to get out of the water emergency, but solving the water problem continues to be our priority," she assured.
