The Government of the Canary Islands announced this Thursday that it will approve the hydrological plan of Lanzarote next week. The Minister of Territorial Policy, Territorial Cohesion and Water of the Government of the Canary Islands, Manuel Miranda, has announced in Parliament that the autonomous Executive the third cycle of hydrological planning of the island, the first of the three that "should have been approved in December 2021 and the previous Government did not do".
Miranda recalled that the Government of the Canary Islands assumed the powers for its elaboration in September of last year, "in view of the accumulated delay, and it has been processed in record time, even earlier than planned".
These statements were made in the context of a response regarding the balance of the first year of management of the Ministry that Miranda directs, an assessment that in the opinion of the Minister "is reasonably positive, due to the difficult situation we found ourselves in when we arrived at the Government, especially in the area of Water". Manuel Miranda added that "we are taking very solid steps to change things, both in water, as well as land management and emergencies, reorganizing the house from within" and "laying the foundations for the future".
It should be remembered that in the month of May the Autonomous Commission for Environmental Assessment gave the green light to the documents of the third cycle of hydrological planning of Lanzarote and, since that date, the reports required to be definitively approved next week have been added to the file. The Minister has reported that "work is being done in parallel on the documents of Fuerteventura and La Palma, by the respective island councils of Water, which have the support and technical advice of the Ministry of Territorial Policy, Territorial Cohesion and Water, to complete the year with hydrological planning in the Canary Islands completely up to date".
Miranda recalled that this hydrological planning "is three years behind and this has led to a firm demand from the European Commission to the European High Court of Justice", a demand that could be resolved with "a new sanction for the Archipelago". To prevent this sanction from arriving, "this Government began working from day one with the aim of concluding this third cycle and in order to ensure that this situation does not happen again, we are already preparing the next cycle that will have to be approved before December 2027.
Regarding the rest of the areas that are part of the competences of the Ministry he directs, Territorial Planning and Emergencies, Miranda explained that "the objective during the first year has been to overcome the paralysis that existed and promote specific projects, such as subsidies to municipalities for their general plans, the beginning of the debate on the updating of the Land Law, the reinforcement of human and material resources in the General Directorate of Emergencies, the promotion of measures to be better prepared for forest fires or the improvement of safety in bathing areas, in coordination with the Canarian Federation of Municipalities (FECAM) that represents the competent administrations".