The spokesperson for the Renovating Movement of Tinajo (MRT), Antonio Morales, accused the mayor of Tinajo, Jesús Machín, this Thursday of "lying and trying to appropriate the rejection of the granting of permits for the emission of brine spills on the coast of La Santa, a project that is linked to the future irrigation network of the northwest area of the island that the Government of the Canary Islands is promoting, with an investment of more than ten million euros."
After the Plenary of the Tinajo City Council unanimously supported the rejection of said brine spills, Antonio Morales assures that "the mayor now intends to make it appear that he has always opposed said project when the reports and documentation corroborate that the mayor has never been interested in or known the details of said project.” The Canarian spokesperson denounces “the nonsense, manipulation and populism” of the mayor in the face of “a large-scale project that is necessary for the municipality of Tinajo.” Morales criticizes that the mayor “has had the opportunity to stop and modify this project on several occasions by presenting allegations, but he never did so.”
The MRT spokesperson explains that "the mayor, who now intends to lead this campaign, has said on many occasions that he will not accept this plant with an underwater emissary and yesterday the Plenary, including the opposition, which the mayor never mentions, supported the no to the emissary."
According to Morales, "Jesús Machín is lying and trying to be an engineer, technician and even a lawyer at the same time, when in reality he has demonstrated his ignorance about this project and his disinterest in it." This plant for irrigation was declared of general interest by the Ministry of Agriculture in 2005. The councilor justifies his words by recalling that "in April 2008 the Lanzarote Water Consortium put this project out for public display, which already included the underwater emissary, but the Tinajo City Council did not present a single allegation.” Furthermore, Morales states, "in the 2019 elections, the mayor himself included this project in his electoral program despite the fact that the City Council did not and does not have any type of powers over it, as it is a project of general interest financed by Europe and managed by the Ministry itself. He was unaware of the project but included it in his electoral program,” he reproaches the mayor.
Morales adds that in April 2022 the Ministry of Fisheries, Agriculture and Food put the environmental impact reports out for public display, "where said brine spills were still contemplated, "but neither then did the Tinajo City Council present a single allegation."
The MRT is astonished after "not even during yesterday's plenary session did any technician clarify certain aspects and doubts about the wording of the project for us." On the contrary, Morales criticizes, "it was the mayor himself who, without explaining to us why he did not present any allegations in 2018, nor in 2022 nor until now, wanted to act as a technician and blurted out several nonsense without having any idea of what this project is about."
In this sense, Morales demands that the mayor of Tinajo "stop manipulating the residents and lying to public opinion" and urges him to "take the appropriate steps so that the drafters of the project, plus the people who have submitted a report in this regard, explain the reasons for this project and its possibility of modification."
