The General Assembly of the Island Water Council of Lanzarote ratified this Wednesday, October 14, by a large majority, the extension for 6 more months of the water emergency for Lanzarote and La Graciosa, as the undersupply situation that led to its declaration in February of this year persists.
The extension of the declaration, which had already been approved in August through an emergency decree signed by the president of the Island Council, is due to a request from the Lanzarote Water Consortium.
The acting president of the Island Water Council, Domingo Cejas, expressed his gratitude for "the great social support" that the extension of the water emergency has received "in a body in which administrations, trade union organizations, business organizations, consumers, and associations of the primary sector are represented."
Votes Against from the PSOE and the Tías Town Council
Of the 31 members that make up the General Assembly of the Island Water Council, whose members were renewed after an electoral process that culminated last June, 24 attended, 20 of whom supported the extension, there were two votes against from the socialist group in the Cabildo and the Tías City Council, and two abstentions from the Yaiza City Council and CCOO.
Domingo Cejas assures that "the extension is necessary because the shortage situation continues, we are still experiencing supply cuts. Extending the emergency allows us to speed up the administrative procedures to continue carrying out the hydraulic works underway, and to address, as is already being done, the increase in water production for citizens, the replacement of pipes, and the implementation of improvements for irrigation in the countryside."
"Thanks to the water emergency, Lanzarote has received 7 million euros in subsidies from the Government of the Canary Islands to increase water production, and it has also allowed us to avail ourselves of the framework agreement for the renovation of pipes with an amount of 5 million euros from the Consortium's funds," Cejas adds.
The first declaration of water emergency for Lanzarote and La Graciosa was approved in the General Assembly of the Island Water Council in January of this year and came into effect in February, following its publication in the Official Gazette of the Canary Islands. The initial declaration of water emergency is made in accordance with the provisions of articles 107 et seq. of Law 12/1990, of July 26, on Waters of the Canary Islands, and in article 198 of the Regulations of the Public Water Domain of the Canary Islands.
The Assembly of the Island Water Council, held today in the plenary hall of the Cabildo, also took note of the resolutions regarding the processing of the hazard and risk maps of the third cycle and their public information process for 3 months, the provisional outline of the fourth cycle of the Lanzarote Hydrological Plan and its submission to public information and consultation for a period of 6 months, and the review and update of the Flood Risk Plan of the third cycle and the period of public information and consultation for a period of three months.