The Island Water Council of Lanzarote has renewed its representative bodies after an electoral process regulated by the statutes of the entity that began in February of last year and that represents a leap in the democratic quality and representativeness of all sectors of society after more than ten years without an electoral call.
The procedure for the election of the members of the General Board began in February 2024 and concluded in May, with the new General Board being constituted in the Assembly held last week in which the new Governing Board made up of 16 representatives was also unanimously approved.
“We have managed to reach a consensus and elect the new representatives after many years without elections being held and without certain sectors having representation”, according to the president of the Cabildo and the Island Water Council of Lanzarote, Oswaldo Betancort.
The members of political representation of the General Board of the Island Water Council change at the same time as public representatives are elected in the regional and local elections, while the rest of the councilors of this body must be renewed at the latest, according to the Statutes, two years after those general calls.
Neither in 2015 nor in 2019 was there a renewal of this body since in one case the organizations of the sector did not present themselves to the election process, and in 2020 the procedure was paralyzed by the Covid pandemic.
The Councilor for Water of the Cabildo of Lanzarote and vice president of the Island Water Council, Domingo Cejas, thanked, for his part, “the participation of all the personnel who have been in this entire process of electing the new members, since there have been many meetings until reaching a consensus and managing to elect the new representatives.”
33 of the 34 representatives of the General Board elected
The new General Board, made up of 34 members plus the president of the Island Water Council and president of the Cabildo, Oswaldo Betancort, renewed the members that make up groups D: consortium, public companies and public service management related to water; E: concessionary entities or holders of uses, as well as their respective organizations; F: agrarian organizations; G: business, union and consumer and user organizations.
Of the two members that correspond to consumer and user organizations, only the Aculanza association presented itself to the electoral process. The rest of the groups (A, B and C) maintain the same representation as they are the elected councilors proposed by the Government of the Canary Islands with one member; of the Cabildo of Lanzarote with eight representatives; and the seven from the municipalities of the island, elected in the respective plenary sessions of the Cabildo and local corporations.
The representation is completed with groups D, E, F and G, with the manager of the Lanzarote Water Consortium being the representative of group D of the consortiums, public companies and public service management that operate on the island and whose activities are directly related to water.
In the entities registered in the Water Registry, group E, there are 8 representatives belonging to Canal Gestión, Asolan, Comunidad de Regantes, Transportes Núñez de Guatiza S.L., Club Lanzarote S.A., BTL Lanzarote S.L., the Experimental Farm of the Cabildo and the Security and Emergency Consortium.
Within group F of the agrarian organizations that has voice and vote there are three representatives from the Association of Artisan Cheese Factories of Lanzarote, the Federation of Agricultural and Fishing Associations Castillo de Teguise and the Association of Farmers Montaña de Los Valles.
And, finally, group G has 6 representatives, two for the business organizations Confederación Empresarial de Lanzarote and Federación Turísticas de Lanzarote; another two for the UGT and CCOO unions; and another two for consumers who only presented a single candidacy, that of the Association of Consumers and Users of Lanzarote, Aculanza.
The Assembly of the Island Water Council unanimously approved, in the same meeting of constitution of this body, the 16 representatives of the Governing Board in the following proportion: One representative of the Government of the Canary Islands, four of the Cabildo, two of the City Councils, one of group D of the public water companies, four of group E of the entities registered in the Water Registry, two of section F of the organizations of the primary sector, and two of section G of the business, union and consumer entities.
