The Renovating Movement of Tinajo managed to get the Plenary to unanimously approve the two motions it defended this Monday, one of them to provide a solution to "one of the problems that is most affecting residents: the lack of water supply", according to the formation.
The party has already brought this issue to the Plenary on several occasions, urging the mayor to demand solutions from Canal Gestión and the Island Water Consortium, but now it has gone a step further. Thanks to the approved agreement, the City Council has committed to adopting “urgently all the necessary measures to end this outrage, without ruling out legal action if necessary.”
“Tinajo cannot continue waiting and if it is necessary for the courts to intervene so that Canal complies with its obligations, they will have to do so,” says the councilor and president of the Renovating Movement of Tinajo, Antonio Morales. And the councilor regrets that “instead of improving, the situation has worsened, becoming unbearable.”
“We continue without a water supply for many days, sometimes exceeding a week, at other times it comes at untimely hours at night, affecting the normal development of our day-to-day lives, as if the residents of Tinajo were of a lower category,” denounces the Renovating Movement, which currently has an open collection of signatures among the residents, and more than a year ago already presented 500 signatures to the Consortium, but regrets that “they have not yet had a response.”
“To this is added the disproportionate bills that many residents have been receiving,” criticize the party. “They are forced to pay and then at a later time, if a breakdown can be proven, a small percentage of refund is produced,” the party questions. And all this, “while on top of that they receive a terrible service, in which the company does not even notify of things as basic as when the supply will be restored or when a meter is going to be changed,” adds Morales.
“That is what we public officials are here for, so that not a single resident feels abandoned and helpless in the face of these abuses,” defended the councilor when presenting the motion, also emphasizing “the difficult economic situation that many families, companies and workers in the primary sector are going through, as to face payments that do not correspond to them.”
Therefore, the approved motion includes another battery of proposals “to ensure that our residents enjoy a supply appropriate to the 21st century.”
Based on that agreement promoted by the Renovating Movement of Tinajo, the City Council will demand that Canal and the Island Water Consortium provide accurate information on the days and hours in which there will be a water supply; and that in the event of a breakdown, the affected residents are automatically notified, restoring the service without delay as soon as it is resolved. Also, that residents are notified in advance of the moment in which the meter is changed.
“Regarding bills with astronomical amounts, mainly motivated by the so-called air in the pipes, the claim that will be transferred is that it be allowed to negotiate and divide the payment, that claims be properly addressed and that payment is not required before resolving them,” explains Morales. “The normal thing is to resolve the amount of the bill and then pay,” emphasizes the Renovating Movement.
In the motion supported unanimously, it was also approved to demand that Canal or the Consortium “be responsible for the cost to subscribers of hiring water tanks due to the poor and insufficient service provided”, and that the works necessary to guarantee the service in the municipality be undertaken immediately, through the emergency route.
Request for another forensic assistant in Lanzarote
The other motion of the Renovating Movement of Tinajo approved unanimously involves urging the Government of the Canary Islands to create a second position for a forensic assistant technician on the island of Lanzarote, “so that the service is never again left uncovered and to mitigate the pain of families.”
From the party they remember that “the island has been suffering for years from a problem that causes some families to have to wait days to bury their loved ones.” “In 2020, the position of forensic assistant technician was finally filled, but there is only one professional, so the service is left uncovered again when he is on his days off, on vacation or with any work permit,” they add. In addition, “he also has to travel to other islands when his services are required,” declares Morales.
“To this day, moments of uncertainty and prolongation in the time of the pain of families continue to occur with relative frequency,” warned the party in its motion, which considers that “it cannot continue to be allowed that this situation is lived or suffered again in the future.”
“The Government of the Canary Islands has the tools, the necessary credit and the procedures to cover at least one more position for a forensic assistant technician,” defends the Renovating Movement, which also obtained the support of the entire Plenary to transfer this demand to the Regional Executive.
