Nueva Canarias-Bloque Canarista (NC-BC) in the municipality of Teguise will request in the next plenary session of the City Council the revision and approval of the Municipal Civil Protection and Emergency Plan (PEMU), which was approved in 2019 by the Civil Protection and Emergency Care Commission of the Canary Islands, an organization integrated by the Administration of the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands, the General State Administration in the Canary Islands, the island councils and the Canarian municipalities, and which to this day has not been ratified in plenary and put into operation.
For councilor Fernando Jiménez, it is necessary for the municipality to follow the recommendations indicated in the Flood Risk Management Plan of the Hydrographic Demarcation of Lanzarote (second cycle 2021-2027), which points out the importance of having the PEMUs updated and approved and to develop Action Plans for Floods. Two measures, argues the Canarian, that Teguise does not comply with.
According to NC-BC, this island document on floods is clear in warning that Lanzarote will suffer more frequently and intensely "extreme weather events that can translate into human and material losses. Additionally, both episodes of torrential rains and floods, as well as droughts, can generate negative consequences on the quality and availability of water, and even modify the conditions of agricultural and livestock production."
"It is not prudent for experts and technicians to warn us of the consequences of extreme weather phenomena such as floods, and to this day we have not approved the basis of any emergency action, which are the plans that govern the coordination, planning and safety of our neighbors," comments Jiménez, who recalls that "the same Risk Management Plan already points out the critical points that Teguise has and, precisely, one of them is the "Huron" ravine in Costa Teguise where the greatest incidents were recorded on Saturday."
Therefore, NC-BC will request the City Council plenary session to review the municipal PEMU and incorporate a hydrological plan that foresees how to deal with rain phenomena and water conservation.
Jiménez asks several questions regarding "the conservation and cleaning of the ravines of Teguise. What type of urban adaptation actions have been carried out in recent years knowing that these rains are becoming more frequent. What allocation is being made in terms of civil protection and whether the municipality has a Specialist Technician in Security and Emergencies as established by law...; some of them we took in the form of proposals to the plenary session of March and the government group of CC, PP and the former councilor of Vox rejected them because they were working on it. It shows that they were working on it."
With everything, NC-BC will insist recurrently that Teguise and all the municipalities of Lanzarote update their emergency plans and, above all, with adaptation to climate change both by phenomena of extreme rains, waves, wind or heat waves and droughts
