Due to the "urgent works" in the electrification of four schools in Arrecife that must be undertaken after the warning made by the General Directorate of Industry of the Government of the Canary Islands, the Councilor for Education of the capital City Council, Lorenzo Lemaur, has proposed the inclusion in the Municipal Budget of an item of 1,300,000 euros, to be able to face them and execute them "as soon as possible".
The affected schools are Titerroy, Adolfo Topham, Mercedes Medina and Capellanía, and the urgency of these works is due to the results of the inspections carried out in the past months, where it is reflected that they have "serious deficiencies in the electrification and it is necessary to adapt them to the new regulations".
Therefore, Lemaur has requested the inclusion of this new item "to hire, through the technical office of the City Council, and urgently, the company that will correct everything that is of an immediate nature", later opening a contest to proceed with the hiring of a second company "to take charge of the adaptation works".
Serious shortcomings and deficiencies
The capital councilor explains that the first of the schools, the one in Titerroy, distributed around several very old buildings, with a recently built dining room and several modules with private homes on the upper floor, requires "immediate repairs" in the secretary's office, in classrooms 2, 11, 12, 13, 16 and 17, in the Hydro, in the assembly hall, as well as in modules 4, 5, 6 and 7, and in the library. In addition, the report commissioned in December by the City Council to inspect electrical and emergency installations of the ten CEIPs in the municipality also indicates that "emergency and complementary supplies are missing."
The Adolfo Topham school "has problems in the general panel, in the corridor panel, in the modules that function as infant classrooms, as well as the gymnasium, the RAM module and the CPI". Likewise, the report specifies that it is a school with more than 600 students "that does not have a complementary supply, does not have emergency lighting in a large part of the CEIP nor does it have technical documentation of the installation, electrical project and installer's bulletin".
Finally, the CEIP Mercedes Medina "presents deficiencies in the electrical room, in the corridor room and in the old laboratory classroom, as well as in the CPI room and generator set". Likewise, in some areas of the center "emergency lighting is missing, cables with inadequate insulation are detected on the wall (corridors, dining room?) and technical documentation of the installation, electrical project and installer's bulletin are not available". Exactly the same situation is suffered by the Capellanía school, according to municipal sources.
Los Geranios, the precedent
The Consistory explains that the inspection report of electrical and emergency installations is requested after the decision of the Ministry of Industry of the Government of the Canary Islands to order Unelco to cut off the electricity to the Los Geranios school in Tinasoria "due to the dangerousness of the low voltage electrical installations, and after having been warning the Arrecife City Council for almost a year to take measures".
The cut-off order, addressed to Unelco, referred to the inspection that was carried out at the center and to the "repetitive writings" that were sent in July, September and October 2008, indicating that "very serious defects" had been detected.
In the case of the four schools that are to be included in the budget project of the Arrecife City Council for 2010, the warning from the Ministry of Industry of the Government of the Canary Islands has been the same: "the schools present very serious deficiencies that must be corrected immediately", which is why Lorenzo Lemaur affirms that he has not hesitated "for a moment" in trying to find the necessary money to undertake these works "for the peace of mind of students, parents and teachers".
