The spokesperson for the Socialist Group in the Cabildo and insular deputy secretary of the PSOE, Ariagona González, has appeared at a press conference to report on the Socialist Party's position on the approval by the Government of the Canary Islands of the Hydrological Plan of Lanzarote.
The PSOE has demanded that Oswaldo Betancort, through its spokesperson, "negotiate with the Government of the Canary Islands the modification of that draft and appeal its approval before the courts, in case the Government continues with its processing, due to the serious damages that it would cause to Lanzarote".
The councilor has asked Betancort to maintain the line of opposition to the Plan of the previous island government: "Loli Corujo's government refused to approve the draft Plan because it authorized private desalination and warned the Government of the Canary Islands that it would appeal to the courts if it continued with its approval."
"Authorizing private desalination will soon lead to an unbearable increase in the price of water for the island's population," the councilor warned, explaining that the price paid by Lanzarote families is subsidized thanks to the more expensive rate paid by large consumers, mainly in the accommodation sector.
A last-minute change
González explained that "from the first moment" instructions were given to the team drafting the Plan and to the General Directorate of Water, which had taken charge of drafting the Plan, that maintaining the monopoly of water in favor of the Water Consortium of Lanzarote was an indispensable requirement for its approval.
"Surprisingly, the last draft, dated December 2022, liberalized desalination and, already in January 2023, the Government of the Canary Islands was informed of the refusal of Loli Corujo's government to approve the Plan under those conditions and its intention to appeal the Plan if it was approved by the Government of the Canary Islands," the councilor explained.
"The consequences of an irresponsibility"
Initially, both the General Directorate and the drafting team expressed their doubts regarding the prohibition of private desalination due to the existence of a 2018 ruling, which annulled the 2001 Hydrological Plan precisely for reserving desalination only to the Water Consortium of Lanzarote.
This ruling, the result of a procedure filed by an individual, makes it clear that no island administration defended the annulled Plan, with only the Government of the Canary Islands appearing.
"The Hydrological Plan of Lanzarote was being challenged in the courts and none of the affected island bodies appeared," González explained, reproaching that neither the Island Water Council, the body in charge of ensuring the Plan, nor the Water Consortium of Lanzarote, as the holder of the water monopoly, intervened.
But the worst, in the opinion of the councilor, was the non-appearance of the first island institution: "The Island Council of Lanzarote, which could and should have played a fundamental role in that dispute, since the Island Plan of Territorial Planning of Lanzarote of 1991 reserved the water monopoly to the Consortium, did not appear either."
"Either it was the Government of the Canary Islands that hid the existence of this procedure until the ruling was issued, or it was the Cabildo that failed to fulfill its obligations in 2016, with Coalición Canaria presiding over the government both in the Canary Islands and in Lanzarote," González pointed out.
It was for this reason that the drafting team was insisted on maintaining the prohibition of private desalination, based on the provisions of the Island Plan, something that had not been done in the annulled Hydrological Plan and was thus included in some of the initial drafts, until the change of criteria occurred in the draft received in December 2022.
The monopolization procedure
Faced with the president's demand to prohibit private desalination, the drafting team made it known, already in the first months of this 2023, that, for legal certainty, this prohibition should be based not on the Island Plan, but on a monopolization procedure in favor of the Island Water Consortium.
Faced with this new avenue, Loli Corujo gave instructions to initiate the monopolization procedure and, for this purpose, a legal firm specialized in the matter was hired.
"We received that report, which is in the Consortium at the disposal of Oswaldo Betancort, but we could not complete these steps due to the change of government," explained the socialist spokesperson, demanding that Betancort continue with the monopolization to guarantee the unity of the integral water cycle in Lanzarote.
