The Insular Water Consortium has filed a complaint with the Civil Guard of Yaiza for not being able to access the Montaña Roja desalination plant to proceed with its seizure. Although the manager of the Consortium, also from Canal Gestión, legal and technical services personnel have been accompanied by six local police officers, they have not been able to enter the facility, located in Playa Blanca.
"They have presented the resolutions, the initiation of the file and the order to seize the facilities to the employees of Club Lanzarote and they have prevented us from accessing, I suppose following instructions from their legal services and the promoter," said the president of the Cabildo, Pedro San Ginés, in an urgent appearance to give details of this situation.
Therefore, the Consortium has gone to the Civil Guard to file a complaint for obstruction of authority, disobedience and for seriously endangering the water supply to 6,000 residents and some 9,000 tourist places. The president understands that they have returned to the area "with a locksmith to dismantle the locks on the doors and enter".
In addition, San Ginés has requested the insular director of the General State Administration for cooperation from the Civil Guard to accompany the Local Police to proceed with this seizure. "We will do it peacefully if they allow us, or with the means we have to use if we have to do it by force," he said.
A desalination plant without authorization
The 6,000 residents and 9,000 tourist places are supplied with water from "this private desalination plant", which is desalting "without authorization". San Ginés has assured that it had a permit in 2004, which expired in 2012. "They requested an extension that was denied by the Insular Water Council and in 2013 they were ordered to stop desalting," he said.
In addition, the "great difference" between this and other desalination plants "in an irregular situation" is that the one in Montaña Roja is the "only one that sells water to third parties". "It is not for self-consumption and never had authorization to sell," the president insisted.
San Ginés has assured that over the last few months he has tried to reach an agreement with the legal services and the promoter of this hydraulic infrastructure, but the conversations have been "unsuccessful". "We have been forced to guarantee that someone who is authorized to supply water to third parties is the one who guarantees the supply of water and sanitation to the residents and tourist beds," the president specified, referring to Canal Gestión Lanzarote.
Despite this situation with the private desalination plant, the president maintains "an open hand for dialogue and consensus" to avoid "a legal dispute with unpredictable consequences". The president has defended this action and has assured that the "only" thing he intends is to "comply with and enforce the Law" so that all residents and tourist establishments "have water under the same conditions, quality and price as the rest of the citizens and the rest of the tourist industries of Lanzarote".
"Device prepared to execute emergency works"
The president also wanted to send a message of "absolute tranquility to the users" of this Partial Plan. "There is a deployment of between 10 or 15 technicians to take over the reins of this desalination plant immediately, as soon as we can access it because they have closed the door on us," he insisted.
In any case, he has announced that there is "a device prepared to execute works through emergency channels, in 12 hours, and connect the water from the Janubio desalination plant to the distribution network, even when the plants were not in operation". "We are in a position to undertake this," defended San Ginés, who assured that, according to the calculations made, the majority of users will pay a "much lower" price when Canal Gestión begins to operate than they currently pay.
