The Lanzarote Water Consortium has decided to continue the procedure for the termination of the contract with Canal Gestión, as the negotiations promoted by the concessionaire to transfer the management of the service to a third company within the granted period have not prospered.
This process is framed within the integrated water cycle management contract signed in 2013 between Canal Isabel II and the Lanzarote Water Consortium, which contemplated the possibility of a transfer of the contract to guarantee an orderly exit and the continuity of the service.
In this regard, the president of the Consortium and of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Oswaldo Betancort, has emphasized that “it was not solely about replacing one company with another, but about ensuring a qualitative leap in the provision of the service based on the general interest and the conditions established by the Consortium Assembly”.
For this, the Consortium granted two consecutive three-month deadlines to Canal Gestión to facilitate the assignment, which finally concluded this Monday, April 6, without the concessionaire having communicated the existence of an agreement on the foreseen terms.
“We are heading towards closing a chapter of the contractual procedure after a rigorous, serious process and with all legal guarantees, which has included a meticulous audit of the management carried out by Canal Gestión during these years,” Oswaldo Betancort has pointed out.
The president added that “the granting of both deadlines evidences the will to facilitate a negotiated solution that would avoid greater harm to the service, but as it did not succeed, it is now time to adopt firm decisions in defense of the general interest and of the users”.
“Unfortunately, the effort of Canal Gestión in recent months, even in the last two years, has not been proportional to that made by the Consortium, the Cabildo and the Island Water Council. The Government of the Canary Islands itself and even the State Administration have been more sensitive to the delicate situation that the island is going through than Canal itself,” according to Oswaldo Betancort.
Unanimity in resolving the contract
The continuation of the procedure is framed within the resolution file initiated by unanimous agreement of the General Assembly of the Water Consortium of April 2025, based on the repeated breaches detected in the execution of the contract, especially regarding infrastructure conservation, repair of leaks and breakdowns, and execution of committed investments. These circumstances have contributed to aggravating water losses, contractually limited to 30%, and to progressively deteriorating the island's hydraulic system.
“The Consortium has acted at all times responsibly and within the legal framework, exhausting all avenues provided in the contract to guarantee the best solution for the citizenry and to ensure a dignified service in which supply cuts do not occur and water reaches the field regularly”, as highlighted by the Cabildo's Minister of Water, Domingo Cejas, who adds that “Canal Gestión has the obligation to continue providing the service, even if the agreement to terminate the contract is adopted”.
The Water Consortium will now raise the proposal to the next General Assembly, a proposal of whose content all members of the Assembly already had knowledge in the meeting held in October 2025.
Once the agreement is adopted, this will be sent to the Consultative Council of the Canary Islands which must issue the mandatory report within a maximum period of 40 days, in accordance with current regulations.
