Nueva Canarias warns that "the privatization of public services is expensive for the population"

A councilor from Más Madrid in the capital's Assembly states that "Canal Gestión has some responsibility for this mismanagement of water on the island", but that those who should "oversee the company [...] have not done their job"

September 30 2024 (15:06 WEST)
Celebration of the New Canary Islands conference 'Recovering Control'
Celebration of the New Canary Islands conference 'Recovering Control'

Nueva Canarias-Bloque Canarista (NC-bc) celebrated last Friday the conference Recovering control of public water, the territory, our lives, at the Maneje Sociocultural Center, and was attended by organic and public officials of the organization, as well as affiliates and citizens in general.

The speakers, Luis Campos, spokesperson for the NC-bc Parliamentary Group; Sonia Argano, expert in the restoration of water heritage; Toña Guardia, former Inalsa worker and former member of the Board of Directors representing the Neighborhood Associations of Lanzarote; and the deputy in the Assembly of Madrid for Más Madrid-Verdes Equo, Alejandro Sánchez, spoke from various approaches and offered some common conclusions such as that "there is a process of dismantling essential public services such as water that puts at risk the sustainability of our society and the capacity we have to face present and future challenges."

Regarding the privatization of water management carried out in 2013 by Coalición Canaria (CC), the deputy of Más Madrid and head of the party for matters of the public company Canal de Isabel II, has always wondered "What is Canal de Isabel II doing managing the water of Lanzarote?". He is clear that "Canal Gestión Lanzarote is a consequence of the expansion of Canal de Isabel II through countries such as Colombia, Brazil, and different Autonomous Communities such as Extremadura or Melilla, led by the former president of the Government of the Community of Madrid Ignacio González who, subsequently, was convicted thanks to Operation Lezo for the diversion of capital from the public company Canal de Isabel II to private accounts of different PP politicians."

"For Más Madrid it is difficult to understand what Canal de Isabel II is doing in Lanzarote when its subsidiary Canal Gestión is losing money and has an accumulated debt of more than 60 million euros in eleven years. To this is added that the service it provides is deficient and is generating a bad image for a public company that has been supplying water to the people of Madrid for 160 years with an efficiency of 97%, that is, only 3% of the water that is generated is lost," comments Alejandro Sánchez, who has the impression that "Canal Gestión has some responsibility for this mismanagement of water on the island, but that the ultimate responsible for overseeing the company, such as the Insular Water Consortium, have not done their job to guarantee that the 56 million investments that the company committed to are fulfilled."

For her part, Toña Guardia spoke of her experience in Inalsa expressing her strangeness about the fact that "overnight a company that was making profits suddenly goes into bankruptcy and with bankruptcy administrators who made reports à la carte." She went on to say that "the part that affected her the most was that of the workers, since we saw that this privatization process had more to do with other issues than improving the water service on the island."

The expert in restoration and conservation of water heritage, Sonia Argano, broke down some absurdities of the current economic model, especially in islands with scarce rainfall such as Fuerteventura and Lanzarote, where the culture of accumulation and use of water through cisterns, dams, gavias, terraces or nateros has been lost, in favor of industrial desalination plants that are highly polluting, invasive and dependent on oil."

"The hydrological plan of Lanzarote indicates that the tourism industry consumes 44% of the water we produce on the island. This should make us reflect on whether we have the capacity to continue growing in beds and hotels while maintaining such an inefficient water management," comments Argano.

Finally, the national spokesperson for NC-bc, Luis Campos, wanted to answer the question of whether there are too many of us in the Canary Islands or not. For the experienced parliamentarian, this question has a clear answer, "it depends on what we want to be. If we want to preserve our idiosyncrasy and our community culture, or if we want a model like Shanghai of 20 million people in buildings of 70 or 80 floors."

Campos noted that "demography by itself is not the problem, the problem derives from the unlimited economic model that strains public services such as water, health, roads, or in the problem of accessing housing due to the proliferation of vacation rentals."

He considers that the government of the Canary Islands of CC and PP has not understood anything from the demonstrations of April 20 for a change in the tourism model, rejecting on several occasions the tourist tax and the insularized moratorium that the Canaristas have proposed.

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