The 13 deaths registered in Lanzarote this year have led municipal officials to demand more surveillance on their coasts. "The Tinajo area is the most dangerous on the island and we have been demanding a solution from the Consortium for years, after this body assumed the surveillance of the beaches, which we still lack." These are the words of the councilor of Tinajo, Antonio Morales, who has long been demanding that the Cabildo put on the table "the need for the municipality to have surveillance" on its coast, where four people have died this year.
Precisely on October 31, a tourist died near Bocachica beach, in La Santa, "after being swept away by a wave while walking along the shore," according to Morales. "The Security Councilor, Mónica Álvarez, called me to worry and I demanded that there must be surveillance from El Cochino beach to Caleta de Famara. There must be a boat and lifeguards, because it is a very dangerous area," said the councilor, who believes that this surveillance would reduce the number of deaths at sea.
Because Tinajo also suffers another major problem and that is the time it takes for resources to reach the municipality. In the incident in Bocachica, "in the time it took for the ambulance and firefighters to come from Arrecife, a jet ski would have already arrived in the area from the La Santa dock and would have returned," said Morales, who demands "an operation closer to Tinajo, with ambulances, boats or zodiacs."
From Yaiza, where they have suffered the loss of seven people at sea this year, the councilor Francisco Guzmán Rodríguez says that the beaches "have surveillance", but the entire coast "does not". "If we get into monitoring coasts, it would be a lot of money, we can't reach that," says the mayor, who is more in favor of "warning the population" about the risks of approaching the water in certain areas of the island.
For his part, from the City Council of San Bartolomé, the councilor Antonio Rocío complains about not having surveillance on the beaches except in summer. "The service can be improved, although I believe that no matter how many preventive measures are taken, all these drownings could not have been avoided," he indicates. In Tías, the councilor Yolanda García considers that this problem does not occur on its beaches, because they are "very well guarded." "In other municipalities they may suffer this situation, I don't know, but in ours the truth is that we don't have problems with the Consortium," she says.
Rita Martín, councilor of Teguise, assures that "we must prevent, which is what is never controlled." "In Costa Teguise there have been two near-drownings this summer and having surveillance on the beaches prevented a tragedy. And that has to be the way, we need an island security plan to avoid these events," she defends.
