Lanzarote has 37 registered discharge points into the sea, but only 8 of them have authorization. The other 29 are not authorized and, in addition, in many cases they discharge next to beaches and sensitive areas of the island. This is highlighted in a report that has been made public by the Government of the Canary Islands, and which paints a worrying picture in all the islands, where there are 393 discharge points, of which 277 lack authorization.
In addition, in the case of Lanzarote, most of these unauthorized discharge points are public. In fact, almost all belong to the Insular Water Consortium of Lanzarote and depend on Canal Gestión. Even one of them is owned by the Government of the Canary Islands, through the Vice-Ministry of Fisheries. In this case, it is the discharge point of the Arrecife Fishing School, which was authorized in its day but is currently "expired", according to the report.
The capital is the one that concentrates the largest number of discharge points, both authorized (4 in total) and unauthorized (14). Next is the municipality of Tías, which has only one authorized discharge point and another seven unauthorized, including the one managed by the Fariones Group. Regarding this emissary, the report of the Canarian Government indicates that the discharge "comes from the swimming pool of the Hotel Los Fariones, which continuously renews its water by drawing it from the sea and returning it continuously" through a conduit that "shows obvious signs of corrosion, which causes some leaks".
In addition to pointing out that this private discharge point is not authorized, the report also points out that the information available in 2007 could not be updated because "the facilities were completely closed for renovation" and they did not respond to "the telephone" or "the e-mail previously provided".
In Yaiza, all authorized
The next municipality with the highest number of discharge points is Teguise, with six, all of them unauthorized. It is followed by Yaiza with three, although in this case all have authorization, and finally San Bartolomé, which has two unauthorized, although in one of the cases the permit is currently in process.
For its part, neither Tinajo nor Haría have discharge points. This, according to the report, "can be explained because, in addition to being the least populated municipalities on the island, approximately half of its surface coincides with protected areas (ZEC and LIC among others)".
Meanwhile, in the rest of the municipalities it points out that "it has been detected that 6 of the inventoried points discharge into areas classified as beach" and another 6 "discharge into areas classified as sensitive areas".
Regarding the type of pipes, of the 37 points registered on the island, 3 are submarine emissaries, 30 drainage pipes and 4 are facilities in the public maritime-terrestrial domain. In addition, the most common discharge is urban wastewater, with 24 registered discharge points, followed by industrial wastewater, with 4.
"Recommendations" to "reduce environmental problems"
In light of these data, the report raises several "recommendations" aimed at "preventing, reducing and/or eliminating the environmental problems caused by the different discharges". Among them, that "the different owner entities proceed to regularize the discharges, so that a correct environmental monitoring and control is facilitated".
In addition, it proposes to monitor "so that the different owner entities present the corresponding PVC of each of the authorized discharges" and that "the monitoring and control systems be improved, implementing (among others) a greater number of flow control devices, BOD and pollutant loads of the effluents, both at the head and in the marine environment", in addition to "improving the treatments at the head of the discharge pipes".
