The new Lanzarote V desalination plant, located in the Díaz Rijo Desalination Plant, will be operational during the next month of March. This was confirmed this Wednesday by the President of the Canary Islands Government, Paulino Rivero, to the President of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Pedro San Ginés, during a visit to the works being carried out for the construction of the desalination plant.
When this facility becomes operational, the plant's production will increase by 18,000 cubic meters per day, which will be added to the 60,000 cubic meters currently produced, according to Rivero. The Canary Islands president also highlighted the "state-of-the-art technology" with which the new desalination plant is being built, which could save "30 percent of its energy costs" compared to the production of other older plants.
The president of the Cabildo, Pedro San Ginés, has positively valued this news "given the situation of water emergency that the island has been suffering for several years." The solution to this situation involves the commissioning of this plant, according to San Ginés.
The new desalination plant will ensure "the supply for the summer and reduce the continuous supply cuts due to the increase in demand in the summer months." In addition, San Ginés also highlighted that it will facilitate Canal Gestión Lanzarote to make stops in the rest of the production plants to repair them and begin to invest the 54 million euros committed when the management of this service was awarded.
The Government of the Canary Islands and the Cabildo have emphasized the "strong commitment to improve the island's hydraulic infrastructure." However, they have pointed out that it is still "necessary" to generate "awareness in the population" to "preserve this asset that in Lanzarote and Fuerteventura depends one hundred percent on desalination."
A budget of seven million euros
The Lanzarote V desalination plant has had a budget of 7 million euros, the last annuity of which is executed this year. It consists of two racks of 9,000 cubic meters of production each, with the possibility of being expanded in the future.
Rivero and San Ginés were accompanied on their visit by the Vice President of the Cabildo, Joaquín Caraballo, the Councilor for Public Works, José Antonio Gutiérrez, the Managing Director of Canal Gestión Lanzarote, Gerardo Díaz, and technicians and representatives of the company in charge of the execution of the work.