The Lanzarote Water Consortium already has two subsidies granted by the Government of the Canary Islands in its bank accounts, charged to the general budgets of the Autonomous Community for the 2024 financial year, for an amount of seven million euros to face the water emergency.
The General Board of the Insular Water Council of Lanzarote meets this Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. in the plenary hall of the Cabildo of Lanzarote to debate the proposal for final approval of the declaration of water emergency in Lanzarote and La Graciosa, after the legal services of the Council have rejected the only two allegations presented to the declaration by the Haría City Council and Ecologistas En Acción.
"We are already seeing the first fruits of the declaration of water emergency by being able to take advantage of a range of subsidies from the Government of the Canary Islands to reverse the water crisis situation on the island," says the president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote and president of the Water Consortium, Oswaldo Betancort.
"The effort made in the last year by the workers of the Water Consortium and the Island Council, together with the trust placed by the 24 members of the General Board of the Island Council who voted in favor of the water emergency, has soon seen its fruits with the granting of the subsidy to finance these two actions aimed at increasing water production in the short term by more than 20%, while the rest of the measures are being developed to recover 100% of the production planned for the Díaz Rijo Plant. We are working to reverse the situation we found at the beginning of the legislature before the end of this year," adds the president.
The seven million euros granted by the Ministry of Territorial Policy, Territorial Cohesion and Water of the Government of the Canary Islands, charged to the general budgets of the Autonomous Community of 2024, have been possible, according to the Water Consortium, "as the processing of the water emergency by the Insular Water Council of Lanzarote was initiated and the valued report of both projects by the Water Consortium of Lanzarote was completed."
Following the agreement adopted by the General Assembly of the Water Consortium of Lanzarote on November 11, 2024, which approved requesting the Insular Water Council of Lanzarote to process the Emergency declaration procedure, the General Directorate of Water of the Government of the Canary Islands was asked to grant a subsidy for the supply of reverse osmosis membranes for an amount of two million euros, with an Order of Concession being issued by the Ministry on December 26.
On November 29, the General Board of the Insular Water Council of Lanzarote approved, with 24 votes in favor, 2 abstentions and 3 votes against, to initially declare the water emergency situation on the islands of Lanzarote and La Graciosa for a period of six months.
That initial approval agreement of the declaration of emergency supported the request made by Oswaldo Bentancor, as president of the Water Consortium of Lanzarote, for the subsidy of the project included in measure A.3. of the agreement of the Insular Water Council, the recovery of the 10,000 m3/day frame of the Lanzarote III plant in the Díaz Rijo desalination plant; the Order of Concession of the Subsidy being issued on December 31.
"The initial approval of the declaration of emergency has been decisive in accessing the subsidies of the Government of the Canary Islands; in other words, the members of the Insular Water Council who voted in favor on November 29 have already contributed to saving 7 million euros to the coffers of the Insular Administration. Tomorrow's day, of final approval of the declaration of water emergency of the island of Lanzarote and La Graciosa, will contribute to opening new doors for the financing of other projects," said the Minister of Water of the Cabildo of Lanzarote and vice president of the Consortium, Domingo Cejas.
