The PSOE of Lanzarote once again placed its water management model at the center of the public debate during the round table organized by the Lanzarote Film Festival, in which the last four presidencies of the Cabildo participated.
According to the party's defense in a statement, the interventions of former socialist presidents María Dolores Corujo and Manuela Armas focused on the defense of the general interest, public management, long-term planning, and the protection of agriculture and the territory.
The PSOE defended that the major advances in water matters in Lanzarote "were linked to political decisions that opted for the public sector." Among them, it listed the creation of the Water Consortium between the Cabildo and the seven town councils and the establishment of Inalsa as a company with 100% public capital. "That model made it possible to guarantee supply throughout the island and accompany its economic and social development, positioning water as a basic right and not as a business," it continued.
María Dolores Corujo has underlined "the historic nature" of these decisions by recalling that the establishment of the Consortium and Inalsa was "a novel and brave milestone that allowed Lanzarote to guarantee water where there was none before," and has defended that the future of water on the island "must follow the same path: 'water must be kept away from mercantilist or speculative interests: it is a right, not a product for doing business'."
Reclaiming Public Control of Water
In line with that trajectory, the Socialist Party has advocated in the Cabildo, the Water Consortium, and other institutions "for the need to move towards an integral water cycle under public control, with a network that effectively reduces losses, guarantees supply to the population, and offers quality water at subsidized prices for the agricultural sector".In the debate, Corujo rejected that citizens be held responsible for the current deficiencies of the system and recalled that "the population cannot be blamed for losses exceeding 50% in the network; what is lacking there is planning, investment, and management from the public sector."This approach also includes a commitment to ensuring that the energy used for desalination comes from public renewable sources, especially wind power, as advocated by Corujo, who argued that "the energy that powers desalination plants must also be public, clean, and designed to lower costs for people, not to increase private profits."
A great island agreement
According to the socialists, one of the "key moments" of the event occurred when Corujo "clearly raised" the need to rescind the concession to Canal Gestión Lanzarote and recover direct management of the service through Inalsa. The former socialist president argued that "water must once again be managed directly by Inalsa and the Water Consortium, where the Cabildo and the seven town councils are represented," placing the administrations back at the forefront of a strategic resource for the island's present and future.
For her part, Manuela Armas emphasized the socialist values linked to water as a basic right and raised the need to articulate **a great island-wide agreement**. In her speech, she advocated for "a great pact for water, with an accurate diagnosis, concrete measures, and a real commitment from all institutions to guarantee water security, social justice, and environmental sustainability."
With its participation in this panel, the PSOE of Lanzarote once again made clear the framework of values it has defended in institutions: water as a right and public management as an essential tool to guarantee equality, social cohesion, and territorial protection against any attempt to turn an essential good into a mere business.
