The president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Pedro San Ginés, has held a meeting with five directors and technicians from the Acciona company in the Canary Islands and the Deputy Minister of Fisheries and Water of the Government of the Canary Islands, Juan Manuel Soto, to discuss, among other issues, two matters related to the commissioning of Lanzarote V and the submarine emissary for the discharge of brine from it and the rest of the desalination plants of the Díaz Rijo Desalination Plant. The meeting also discussed the rainwater works in the city of Arrecife.
The Deputy Minister confirmed that the file for the modification of the Lanzarote V desalination plant project, which will involve an additional investment of 1.2 million euros, is "about" to be completed. Thus, "the commissioning of one of the racks is planned for the end of next summer". This will mean an increase of 9,000 cubic meters in the current production of the plant. When fully operational, its production will be 18,000 cubic meters.
Likewise, the Deputy Minister of Fisheries and Water of the Regional Executive confirmed that the General Directorate of Nature Protection has already submitted to public information the submarine emissary project for the discharge of brine from the entire Díaz Rijo Desalination Plant in Punta de Los Vientos.
Thus, once the allegations have been resolved, it will be the General Directorate of Nature Protection that authorizes the works and discharges, thus giving "a definitive solution" to this problem. "This emissary will provide a definitive solution for discharges that have a provisional authorization granted for a plant that has been in operation for more than 30 years," the Cabildo recalled.
Arrecife rainwater network
Likewise, the conclusions of the Technical Monitoring Commission for the rainwater works in Arrecife, created at the request of the Cabildo and formed by technicians from the Government of the Canary Islands and the Island Corporation itself, were assessed. In this sense, it was agreed that the channeling works in the headwaters of the Argana ravines "be postponed pending changes in the planning", which must be incorporated both in the approval of the General Plan of Arrecife and in the Island Plan. In this way, "legal coverage" will be given to the "necessary deviation of the channels".
However, the Technical Commission proposes that intervention be carried out on the existing network, optimizing the infrastructures already built. Among the actions proposed are interventions in the streets that were pending in the actions carried out by the Cabildo; in the channeling of the entrances to the rainwater network, the installation of new pumping pumps, manholes and relief wells, among others.
Declare the emergency of the works
In this sense, the Technical Commission has suggested that the contracting and execution of all these works, which together represent an investment of more than 800,000 euros, be carried out using the emergency procedure. To this end, the Arrecife City Council must declare the emergency of the projects, an issue that the mayor of the city, Manuel Fajardo, has confirmed will be taken to the next municipal plenary session.
It should be recalled that the Cabildo of Lanzarote already declared at the time the emergency of the works that it pre-financed with an investment of 400,000 euros and that are currently "in an advanced state of execution". Next Friday, the island Corporation will also request in plenary session that the Government of the Canary Islands do the same with the works described and that it is responsible for executing with another 830,000 euros.
On this point, the president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote reminded the Deputy Minister of Fisheries and Water that the Government of the Canary Islands has in its General Budget for the year 2013, a partida of 1.2 million euros, of which 400,000 euros correspond to the aforementioned pre-financing by the island institution, and that it was up to the Government of the Canary Islands to execute, so the Cabildo has requested the Regional Executive to "transfer these resources, after commissioning and certification of the same".
