The spokesperson for the Socialist Group in the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Ariagona González, has accused the island's president Oswaldo Betancort of "trying to hide his inability to face the water problems in Lanzarote by turning the declaration of the water emergency into a farce."
The councilor explained in the Insular Water Council held this Wednesday, that if Oswaldo Betancort considered the water emergency necessary "he could have declared it from the first moment", as president of the Council. However, he took a proposal to the Plenary of the Debate on the State of the Island to "urge the Water Consortium to, in turn, ask the Council to declare it, being the president of the three bodies."
"Oswaldo has asked Oswaldo to tell Oswaldo to declare the emergency when the Council is empowered to decree it without the need for any other body to propose it," González summarized, pointing out that this "theatricalization" has meant "two months of delay for something that," according to Betancort himself, "was an emergency."
González also explained that "none of the measures proposed to the Council require the declaration of emergency to be executed."
"Lanzarote has funds available for the northwest irrigation and for several treatment plants without the need to decree any water emergency. Lanzarote receives funds from the Government of the Canary Islands for the care of the elderly without having to decree the social emergency or funds for employment without declaring the labor emergency," the councilor pointed out.
Regarding the possibility of justifying the declaration of urgency in contracting, the councilor explained that each of the bodies that execute works or investments will have to justify that urgency for each of the contracts, regardless of the declaration of water emergency, as established by the Public Sector Contracts Law.
The socialist spokesperson insisted that "the Cabildo has returned to the policy of headlines and Power Point" and that this declaration "is nothing more than a smokescreen, trying to hide that since August 2023, when he presented his plan of urgent actions in the field of water, Oswaldo Betancort has been unable to carry out any of these measures."
González has also shown the "enormous concern of the Socialist Group regarding Oswaldo Betancort's commitment to undertake investments charged to public funds that would correspond to Canal Gestión":
"The concession contract obliges Canal to reduce losses and during these years they have only increased. Now, Oswaldo Betancort intends to reward Canal's inability by repairing the pipes with public funds." Thus, he continued adding that "the same happens with the damaged racks. Instead of demanding that Canal Gestión repair them, Oswaldo intends that the administration be the one to buy new racks," González reproached.
"The Socialist Party is not going to be an accomplice to a decision devoid of content, no matter how much it is intended to inflate it based on rhetoric to try to justify the first eighteen months of lack of management by Oswaldo Betancort. Our taps need water, not occurrences," the councilor concluded.
