The Lanzarote Water Consortium has continued this Thursday the administrative procedure to terminate the contractual relationship with Canal Gestión Lanzarote, approving by majority in the General Assembly the necessary agreements to reinforce the institution's legal position and guarantee the public interest in the event of a service transfer to a third party.
“Whether for the assignment or for the termination of the water service concession contract, it is necessary to follow a roadmap, to complete files so as not to arrive with doubts and weaknesses in any of the scenarios. Approving the dismissal of the two appeals filed by Canal Gestión in the assembly are essential steps to leave the accounts clear,” according to the president of the Cabildo and the Water Consortium of Lanzarote, Oswaldo Betancort.
The Assembly, in this regard, has dismissed the appeal for reconsideration filed by Canal Gestión, which "endorses requesting the concessionaire to refund 1.5 million euros unduly paid in the last Legislature on account of a tariff update subsequently rejected by the Canary Islands Price Commission".
From the entity they point out that "this agreement, included in the agenda of the first extraordinary session held this Thursday at the headquarters of the Cabildo de Lanzarote, consolidates the economic requirement formulated by the Consortium as part of the contract control and oversight procedure".
Likewise, the Assembly unanimously approved the dismissal of another appeal for reconsideration filed by Canal Gestión against the agreement of December 17, 2025, related to investments made under the concession contract, thus reinforcing the Consortium's position in the analysis of the concessionaire's contractual obligations. In this regard, the report prepared by the Consortium established an underinvestment by Canal Gestión exceeding 21 million euros out of the 54 committed.
The Minister of Water of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Domingo Cejas, assures for his part that "an eventual transfer of water management is not a validation of breaches, and despite the noise that some political formations may make, the truth is that the steps we are taking only seek to defend public money and face any new formula for managing the integral water cycle starting from the conditions established by the owners of the water, which is all of us".
Tariff update to guarantee service sustainability
In the same session, the proposal to update water cycle tariffs in Lanzarote and La Graciosa for the year 2025 has been given the green light, an agreement that will be sent to the Canary Islands Price Commission for authorization as a prior legal requirement before final approval.
The proposal, with the votes against from the City Councils of Tías, San Bartolomé, Haría, and Yaiza, is based on a specific and independent economic study, requested by the Consortium, which concludes the need for an average update of 15.06% to align revenues with the real production cost of the drinking water supply service.
Among the main modifications proposed, the first domestic block (0-10 m³) would go from 0.60 to 0.69 euros per cubic meter; which would mean an increase of 90 cents on the bill; the 11 to 30 m³ bracket, from 1.03 to 1.19 euros; the 31 to 40 m³ bracket, from 1.75 to 2.01 euros; and consumption over 40 m³, from 3.69 to 4.25 euros. In the case of industrial and tourist use, the rate would be updated from 2.91 to 3.35 euros per cubic meter, with the same average percentage being applied to the rest of the categories.
As the file itself states, it is up to the Consortium Assembly to initially approve the update and decide the distribution of the increase among uses and consumption blocks, within the current legal framework, before it is submitted to the Canary Islands Price Commission.
With these agreements, all adopted by majority within the General Assembly, the Lanzarote Water Consortium reaffirms its roadmap: to clarify contractual responsibilities, ensure the economic sustainability of the service, and lay the necessary legal and technical foundations to guarantee the continuity and quality of the integral water cycle in Lanzarote and La Graciosa.
The Assembly has also taken into consideration the document submitted by the entity Gestagua, in which it requests its appearance as an interested party in the resolution file and, where appropriate, in the eventual authorization procedure for the assignment of the integral water cycle concession contract.
Extraordinary Assembly
In the Extraordinary Assembly, requested by the mayors, the Technical Economic Exploitation Study of the UTE Sacyr-Aqualia presented by Canal Gestión was noted after their request for authorization to begin the contract assignment procedures.
Oswaldo Betancort, points out in relation to this request from the mayors that “information is being requested about the authorization of the transfer when nowadays no transfer is going to be authorized, because it would be conditioned on the fulfillment of the conditions set by the Consorcio to the incoming company and by the concessionaire to the Consorcio”. Betancort added that “the transfer is a possibility that this Consorcio and its president must explore out of responsibility in favor of the general interest”.
“It is a duty to study all options to be able to choose which would be most favorable for the continuity of the service, for the neighbors, and also for the workers of Canal Gestión, who in recent months, which have been hard, have been on the side of the service, of the neighbors, assuming double working days due to the lack of staff that the company suffers from,” adds the president.
The technical economic study for the operation of this UTE service establishes a water tariff increase of 32.68 percent during the first year, and a reduction in water losses to a maximum of 30 percent within 5 years progressively, although this proposal is contrary to the study carried out by the Water Consortium, which calculates and estimates only 15.06%.
The temporary union of companies also stipulates in its economic and technical study an investment of 35 million euros to improve the island's hydraulic infrastructures that would be carried out in the first five years of the contract.
In matters of the Presidency, a letter submitted by the company Canaragua is also reported this past Wednesday in the same vein as that submitted by Gestagua and which, according to the mayors, they also received in their City Councils.
