The Arrecife City Council expects the capital's sanitation works to begin throughout 2006

Arrecife will smell good someday. Even if torrential rains become a constant in the island's climate, which would not be so strange given the climate change that the planet has been experiencing in recent years, the capital ...

August 19 2005 (20:54 WEST)
The Arrecife City Council expects the sanitation works of the capital to begin throughout 2006
The Arrecife City Council expects the sanitation works of the capital to begin throughout 2006

Arrecife will smell good someday. Even if torrential rains become a constant in the island's climate, which would not be so strange given the climate change that the planet has been experiencing in recent years, the capital will be prepared to face misfortune with a modern sanitation network capable of admitting large torrents of water without the danger of rats surfacing from the sewers. And not just rats.

As the Director-General of Water of the Canary Islands Government told this newspaper, "the rainwater project for Arrecife and Tías has already been submitted to the Ministry of the Environment awaiting a political decision to start contracting and begin the work." These works are in the Canary Islands-State agreement, "we have competence over them, because they are works declared of general interest and are in the National Hydrological Plan," he clarified. "We have already complied with our part of the agreement and are now awaiting funding from the Ministry."

The works will begin in 2006

From the Arrecife City Council it was pointed out that the beginning of the works that will finally save the population from unpleasant episodes such as the one experienced on Thursday will probably begin throughout 2006, although neither the specific date nor its completion can yet be specified.

This sanitation plan, valued at 960,000 euros, considers the definitive transfer of the pumping station located on Portugal Street in Arrecife to the vicinity of the Cabildo, placing underground pumps and installing a drive pipe that connects the new location of the pumping station with the Arrecife treatment plant.

The Canarian Government drafted the project in view of the capital's City Council's interest in improving the environmental quality of the municipality and, above all, in view of the clamor of the residents who are tired of enduring the bad odors given off by the sewage.

In addition, sanitation and a treatment plant are planned in El Golfo and Playa Quemada.

Opening of Famara Beach

On the other hand, Famara Beach has already been opened to the public. The Ecological Brigade of the Teguise City Council decided yesterday morning to reopen the beach at the Caleta de Famara pier to bathers, which had been closed on Thursday to bathers due to sewage spills that occurred as a result of a failure in the sanitation pumping network.

As the Environment Officer of the northern municipality explained to LA VOZ, the cause of the spill was not the municipal sanitation network, but the shutdown of the Famara pumping station.

Because the problem was solved immediately, since it was only necessary to start the station, it has only been necessary to wait until the tide cleaned the water from the coastline.

It is important to note that the beach did not suffer contamination, as the spill went directly to the open sea. The force of the waves of Famara were responsible for cleaning the bathing area and yesterday morning the beach was open to the public.

The heavy downpour that woke up the people of Lanzarote on Thursday morning caused an electrical failure in the Caleta de Famara pumping station, a circumstance that led to the overflow of the sewage network near the small beach.

The Environment Officer explained that the municipality did not experience any incidents due to the downpour.

The same cannot be said of other parts of the island, such as Playa Honda, Playa Papagayo or the capital of the island itself.

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