The plenary session of the regional Parliament has validated this Wednesday, unanimously, an agreement of the previous Government of the Canary Islands by which it temporarily assumes the powers of the Island Water Council of Lanzarote, to continue the "elaboration of the island hydrological plan until its approval". This is to approve the third cycle (2021-2027) and the 'Special flood risk management plan', second cycle (2021-2027), of the hydrographic demarcation of Lanzarote.
The Minister of Territorial Policy, Territorial Cohesion and Water, Manuel Miranda, presented the proposal approved by the previous Executive, which agreed to the "temporary subrogation on May 25", but to carry it out it "required the approval of the Parliament of the Canary Islands", which this Wednesday has given its support.
The Minister has sent a "reassuring message" in that the Government of the Canary Islands "will collaborate and participate" with the rest of the administrations in the processing of the hydrological plans. The deputy of the Mixed group, Raúl Acosta, of the Independent Herreña Grouping (AHI), has lamented that a competence of the councils is "withdrawn from that of Lanzarote because it has not been able to manage the most important thing that the Canary Islands has".
In addition, the deputy of the Socialist Grouping Gomera (ASG), Melodie Mendoza, has recalled that Europe has "sanctioned the Canary Islands because the Island Council of Lanzarote has not approved the island hydrological plan", since it sees the entire Canary Islands as "a single hydrological basin".
The Vox deputy Nicasio Galván has said that the proposal "is correct" and has suggested that, whenever "an entity does not comply, the same should be done". On the other hand, the deputy of Nueva Canarias-Bloque Canarista (NC-BC) Yone Caraballo has pointed out that in "some towns of Lanzarote and in La Graciosa there is a shortage of water on many occasions, but it is not lacking in the tourist areas", and has insisted that it is "negligence".
The deputy of the Popular Party Raquel Díaz has indicated that it is evident that water is "a scarce resource with high added value in the Canary Islands", and has added that it is also possible to "lose financing possibilities by not complying". Also the deputy of Coalición Canaria Oswaldo Betancort, president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, has defended that the professionals of the Island Water Council "have complied" and "has attributed what happened to political issues in management2.
The PSOE deputy Marcos Bergaz has stressed that the problems "are not good", and has pointed out that, after "ten years of CC government in Lanzarote, when the PSOE arrived at the island corporation, the Island Water Council of that island was "dismantled".
