The Renovating Movement of Tinajo considers unacceptable the indifference that the mayor, Jesús Machín, continues to show towards one of the main problems suffered by the municipality, the water shortage. "He still doesn't see it as a priority," laments the president and councilor of the MRT, Antonio Morales, who denounces that Jesús Machín has not even been able to convene the extraordinary Plenary session that he promised to address this issue.
The party recalls that it has been presenting initiatives in the City Council for more than a year and a half and asking the mayor to act in the face of the constant water cuts suffered by the residents, but the only response they have obtained from the mayor has been silence and broken promises.
"In the last plenary session in September, he refused to include the appearance that we had requested so that he could give explanations, claiming that he was going to convene an extraordinary plenary session for this matter, but a month later he still hasn't convened it," criticizes Morales.
"It is a lack of respect for him to tell us that he is going to convene an extraordinary plenary session and a month has passed and he has not convened it, but above all it shows that he has no interest in solving this serious problem, nor is he too concerned about it," he questions.
For its part, the Renovating Movement of Tinajo gathered more than 500 signatures and presented them to the Insular Water Consortium, so that they would be recorded as formal complaints. "The objective was to give the Consortium tools to act against Canal Gestión for non-compliance not only with the contract, but also with the law, given that it is an essential public service," explains the MRT spokesperson.
"While we are all concerned about this issue, while the residents are filing complaints, while from the Renovating Movement we have done our job and have extended a hand so that this is a Corporation issue and leave political ideology aside, he has neither built bridges to the opposition, nor has he taken the gesture that we have had from the Renovating Movement, nor does he address the complaints of the municipality of Tinajo," laments Antonio Morales, who questions that "once again the mayor demonstrates that he is neither here nor is he expected" and that "he has no concern whatsoever for the problems of the municipality."
A motion waiting to be executed
Already in May 2020, the MRT presented a letter to the Consistory requesting that the mayor, as a member of the Insular Water Consortium and as the highest representative of the City Council of Tinajo, demand that Canal Gestión provide a "decent, serious and adequate supply in the municipality in general, and also in the primary sector and especially in agriculture."
In that letter, he also requested that Canal Gestión be required, through the Consortium, to report the days and hours in which water would be supplied to the municipality; that when there were cuts, the residents be informed; and that once the cuts from a breakdown were recovered, water be supplied immediately and that they not wait a week, so that people could fill the tanks and cisterns. In addition, he asked to demand the immediate execution of the works necessary for Tinajo to have a decent service.
"We never received a response from the mayor to this letter," laments Antonio Morales, who recalls that that is why they decided to raise those same demands to the Plenary session. In addition, in the motion they requested that Canal be required to compensate the affected residents, not only in homes, but also in businesses such as cafeterias, bars, bakeries or wineries, for the damages they suffer with these cuts. That motion was debated on August 5, 2020 and was approved unanimously, but since then, more than a year ago, there is no record that a single step has been taken by the mayor.
"A month later we asked him what steps had been taken and they did not answer us. And in the past plenary session in September we asked for his appearance so that he could inform us of what he had done about this matter, and he did not even include the appearance in the Plenary session," recalls Antonio Morales. It was then that Jesús Machín took refuge in the supposed convocation of an extraordinary plenary session that a month later he still has not convened. "He continues to ignore an issue that we consider of utmost importance, because I believe it is one of the most important problems that the municipality has right now," laments Morales.
