The Lanzarote Water Consortium has made a positive assessment of the start-up of the North Line of supply, a strategic infrastructure that, once the testing and technical adjustment period has been overcome, is now operating normally between Zonzamas and Arrieta, significantly improving supply in the population centers of the north of the island.
“The definitive start-up of the North Line, and the programming of the service that the Consortium is carrying out, is already allowing localities such as Haría and Máguez to receive supply water periodically, something unthinkable just a few months ago,” highlights the president of the Water Consortium and the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Oswaldo Betancort. “We are already seeing the first results of a project long demanded by the residents and fundamental to guarantee supply in the north of the island.”
“We have managed to end the distress suffered by the towns in the north. We are awaiting the effective institutional collaboration of the City Council to manage to push water from Arrieta to Haría, but thanks to the organizational capacity of the Water Consortium, and without the need for millionaire investments, the service works with criteria and thinking about the daily lives of the residents.”
After overcoming the necessary testing period to verify the correct functioning of the infrastructure, the main pipeline is now transporting water to the Arrieta reservoir, consolidating a substantial improvement in the distribution capacity to the towns of the municipality of Haría. At the moment, only the execution and commissioning of the last pumping section between the Arrieta and Haría reservoir remain pending, an action that will culminate the hydraulic scheme initially planned for the North Line.
Meanwhile, the system is already allowing periodic supply to localities such as Haría and Máguez, improving both the available flow rates and the regularity of supply compared to the situation that existed until now.
In this regard, the Consortium explains that the programmed cuts that still occur at certain times are not due to operational problems with the North Line, but to the need to manage available resources to also meet agricultural demand in one of the areas with the highest primary sector activity on the island.
The Water Councilor, Domingo Cejas, points out that "the North Line is already fulfilling the function for which it was conceived and allows us to have a water transport capacity that did not exist before. The adjustments we continue to make are aimed at optimizing distribution and reconciling the supply to the population with the needs of the agricultural sector." According to Cejas, as soon as the northern City Council "puts all its administrative capacity into motion, we will be able to make the daily continuity of water to the entire municipality a reality. As a plan B, we have managed to make the Central Line a support transport line for the north of the island."
Fewer interruptions and more balanced planning
In parallel, the Water Consortium has already planned a new schedule for service interruptions in the northern area, with a less aggressive and more balanced calendar that will reduce the impact on residents while maintaining the necessary supply for agricultural operations.
"We are aware that there is still a long way to go, but the reality is that the current situation is very different from what it was just a few months ago," adds Betancort. "Today we have an operational infrastructure that is already bringing water where it barely reached before, and we continue to work so that restrictions and scheduled cuts are increasingly less necessary."
The North Line constitutes one of the main hydraulic actions carried out in Lanzarote in recent years and is part of the strategy promoted by the Water Consortium and the Insular Water Council to reinforce the island's water security within the framework of the water emergency, guaranteeing both the supply to the population and the supply to the primary sector.