The sanitation and purification works in the town of El Golfo, in the municipality of Yaiza, will be put out to tender in the coming month of March, as announced this Monday by the president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Oswaldo Betancort, to the fifty or so residents with whom he met in the plenary hall of the Island Corporation.
At the meeting, requested by the residents to learn about the project's execution schedule, the Minister of Water, Domingo Cejas, the Minister of Territorial Policy, Jesús Machín, and the Minister of the Environment, Samuel Martín, also attended.
The work on the sanitation network and wastewater treatment plant in El Golfo began in December 2017 after the signing of an agreement between the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environment, the Yaiza City Council and the Lanzarote Water Consortium, with a duration of 4 years, under which the central Administration granted a subsidy of one million euros for these actions.
In November 2021, a new extension is signed for another four years that expires in November 2025 and that, if the works have not started within that period, would mean the loss of the subsidy and the payment of the corresponding interest.
The president of the Cabildo, together with the Minister Domingo Cejas, made a historical review of the project and pointed out that "we will do everything possible to execute the works in a timely manner so as not to lose the funds from the Ministry", although he promised that the project will be executed "even if it is with financing from the Cabildo and the Yaiza City Council because it is an investment that the residents of El Golfo and the island in general deserve, and it means better treatment of wastewater, which will benefit the landscape and the environment."
The Lanzarote Water Consortium is already working on the specifications of the works contract to put the tender out to bid "no later than the month of March, and in the coming months to have the work awarded", as Oswaldo Betancort pointed out.
The project, which in 2020 amounted to one million euros, already has an updated cost of 1.6 million; the cost overrun will be borne by the Cabildo of Lanzarote. The execution period of the works will be 18 months.
Oswaldo Betancort promised to hold a new meeting with the residents once the work has been awarded and asked them for "collaboration and understanding during the time that the work lasts in the area".
"An inexplicable paralysis"
The project suffered "an inexplicable paralysis since 2021 when even the Ministry of Ecological Transition of the Government of the Canary Islands had sent the Cabildo the proposal for an environmental impact report of the project. The Cabildo only had to approve it in the Governing Council and publish it in the official bulletins, but it was not processed, it was kept in a drawer", according to the Minister of Water, Domingo Cejas.
Already in this legislature, the Proposal was taken and approved in the Governing Council in February 2024, after receiving, that same month, from the Yaiza City Council the report of compatibility with the planning and the decree of availability of the land.
In September of last year, the Yaiza City Council also sent two reports to the Water Consortium, the price revision report and the project supervision report. A month later, the General Directorate of Coasts authorizes the interventions in the easement area, and the Water Consortium requests authorization from the Island Water Council, which occurs on January 26 after the expiration of the public exhibition and publication periods in the Official Gazette of the Canary Islands.
Other needs of El Golfo
Other issues were also raised at the meeting, both by the Cabildo of Lanzarote and by the residents of El Golfo. The councilors of Territorial Policy and Environment, Jesús Machín and Samuel Medina, explained the situation in which the processing of the planning instruments of the Los Volcanes Natural Park is located, whose Natural Resources Management Plan will be submitted for final approval in the month of April, a step prior to the approval of the Master Plan for Use and Management of that natural space.
The Minister of the Environment, Samuel Martín, pointed out that the Cabildo is working at the same time on establishing limits to visits to the Charco de Los Clicos, a place that, according to the load report of the protected areas of Lanzarote and La Graciosa, suffers overcrowding with about 3,000 daily visits.
The procedures for the regulation of vacation homes in the town of El Golfo, aid for the acquisition of tanks and cisterns, or the location and status of waste containers were other issues that concern the residents and on which the president of the Cabildo has committed to resolve together with the Yaiza City Council, whose mayor, Óscar Noda, was present at the meeting.
In fact, regarding the residents' demand regarding waste collection, on the morning of this Tuesday, and after a visit from the councilor Domingo Cejas, together with two councilors from the Yaiza City Council, it has been agreed to move the containers to another location proposed by the City Council; and as for the service, it has been agreed to increase the frequency of selective collection in the center of El Golfo.
