The 'Water Memory' exhibition, which opened this Friday, April 27 at the Casa Amarilla on Calle Real, the old Cabildo, commemorates the arrival of the first water treatment plant to Lanzarote in 1964. The first desalination plant in Europe for public consumption that allowed Lanzarote to make a social and economic change. The opening was attended by the president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Pedro San Ginés; and the councilor of the Casa Amarilla, José Manuel Sosa, and the curator of the exhibition Luis Díaz Feria, son of Manuel Díaz Rijo, naval engineer, architect of this technological advance. Many of the desalination plant's workers were also present at the beginning.
Díaz Ferias gave a tour of the exhibition, which is divided into three spaces: one that is the private and family life of his father; another the technical part; and a third that is dedicated to the entire team, the staff that the treatment plant had at that time.
In the exhibition you can see a pen drawing that César Manrique painted for Manuel Díaz Rijo; a model of the 1964 desalination plant; three original videos of the facilities, which includes the disembarkation of the machinery in Arrecife; family objects; the work books of the installation and many photographs of the staff or the island of Lanzarote on those dates, among other objects.
San Ginés affirms that "the desalination plant not only allowed an unprecedented historical leap in the future of the Island, but today it provides us with an invaluable lesson about the value of education and technological entrepreneurship for our reflection on the future".
Sosa, for his part, in the same sense, "the arrival of the desalination plant allows us to analyze the past and present of the Island, especially in its water management, a resource that continues to be key for a Biosphere Reserve like Lanzarote".
Both representatives reiterated their gratitude to the family and Luis Díaz Ferias for making this exhibition possible and for donating a large part of his father's material that will become part of the inventory of all Lanzarote residents.
The exhibition is open until the end of October, and most of the island's educational centers will pass through it. The exhibition can be visited from 7:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. from Monday to Friday.
