Tías dedicates a sculpture in homage to the arrival of water to the south of Lanzarote

This Monday the 22nd is World Earth Day. The new sculpture is visible from this week that the Tías City Council has erected in a historical place in the municipality where half a century ago the great cistern was built that supplied water to the rural population of this municipality, which lived off agriculture and where tourism was still in its infancy.

In Lanzarote, having water for the subsistence of life was vital. During the first half of the 20th century, the hydraulic installations of the Famara galleries (in the north of Lanzarote) were put into operation, supplying water to the capital, Arrecife. However, in the south of the island, the scarcity of water forced the population to emigrate to the capital of Lanzarote.

Then, the construction of a hydraulic device was launched to supply water from the rain to the population residing in the south of the island, with Tías as the main populated nucleus of the southern region of Lanzarote. At the end of 1968, the work of channeling the waters from the maretas drilled almost at the top of Montaña Blanca and deposited in a large cistern built on the current Central Avenue of Tías would be completed.

This hydraulic work, with the few machinery and resources for that time, meant an important milestone in the rural history of Tías. A year earlier, the first hotel had been built in La Tiñosa (origin of Puerto del Carmen), but even then the channeled water was not present or reached the southern region of Lanzarote.

The Government group of Tías, led by Mayor Pancho Hernández, commissioned the young sculptor born in Tías, Julián Bermúdez Mesa, to recreate in a sculpture this symbolism of the arrival of water to Tías, just when the 50th anniversary of that important milestone is commemorated. After several months of work, Bermúdez Mesa has delivered to the City Council his sculpture - where he recreates a real peasant woman from Tías drawing water - which has been on display since this week in the same location where the large cistern that supplied rainwater to the local population is located in its subsoil.

Julián Bermúdez, who completed his sculpture studies at the Pancho Lasso Art School, in Lanzarote, was part of the team of artists who, under the direction of the British sculptor Jason deCaires, created the figures of the Atlantic Museum in the waters of Papagayo, in the south of Lanzarote. For five years, Bermúdez Mesa has resided in England where he works with Jason deCaires' multidisciplinary team for his artistic works present in many parts of the world.

For the sculpture in homage to the Culture of Water, which is already on display on Central Avenue in Tías, Julián Bermúdez focused on a real peasant woman residing in the town of La Asomada to make the mold in real size for his new artistic work. The sculpture, with mixed technique, has been executed in cold function. The work recreates this rural woman, a peasant woman, drawing water from the cistern with a bucket tied to a rope.

In recent weeks, workers from the Tías City Council have carried out the beautification work of the area where, from now on, this sculpture is erected that recalls the arrival and storage of water in the center of Tías, in those decades a town that lived off the agricultural activity linked to the cultivation of tomatoes and onions.

"A commemorative plaque, with a text compiled with the history of the place and the arrival of water to Tías, extracted from the book El Postigo de Tías, reflects that hard stage that many sons and daughters of Tías lived and still remember", highlights the mayor Pancho Pancho Hernández in his dedication to this tribute sculpture that sees the light coinciding with World Earth Day, where water made human life and evolution possible.