The Lanzarote Water Board has published a statement in which they launch a series of requests to the Water Consortium to solve the water supply on the island and, in addition, demand that they "fulfill the promises made to the citizens".
"The resident population of the island continues to suffer selective daily cuts in the water supply, especially for domestic and agricultural water users, since there are no cuts in tourist water use, including illegal hotel establishments," they denounce from the group.
The Water Board has stressed that in the months of September and October, "the residents of the town of Haría and Los Valles were more days without supply than with it".
In addition, they criticize the Water Consortium for "trying to cushion its discredit and that of Canal Gestión by trying to confuse the citizens of Lanzarote and La Graciosa, implying that they are doing everything possible to solve the problem, proposing a new trick as a solution to the supply problems: the declaration of Water Emergency in Lanzarote and La Graciosa".
The Water Board assures that "we are facing the presence of a privatized integral water cycle management model that has failed." Likewise, it accuses the Madrid-based company Canal Gestión of "seeking to maximize the rate of profit and create a crisis to force the administrations to intervene, and thus, with public money, through the Water Emergency, the taxpayer pays for the investments to which the concessionaire is obliged by contract; and that the Water Consortium is not able to enforce its obligations".
Solution they propose
In the document presented to the Island Water Council to request the Water Emergency, it is proposed as the main measure the increase in the production of desalinated water, with the provisional acquisition of five portable desalination plants, until the 20,000 m3 plant is installed.
"Let us remember that Canal Gestión Lanzarote, reported in the water balance for the year 2023 that the production of desalinated water amounted to 29.5 million cubic meters, that is, an increase of 4.67%, even with the loss of 10,000 m3 from a frame out of service. If we consider a consumption of 200 liters per inhabitant per day, it would be enough for a population of 404,000 inhabitants. To this we should add the production of private desalination plants," they detail.
"We believe that it is a mistake to continue installing desalination plants capriciously, with public money and without adequate planning to try to hide where the real problem is and where we have to point, which is none other than the 56% of unregistered water volume; which is not only produced by leaks in the networks, but is a multifactorial problem and addressing it requires a comprehensive approach and investments, corresponding to solve the concessionaire company (which is not willing), combining advanced technologies, improvements in infrastructure and efficient management," they explain.
