"While the Water Consortium warns Canal Gestión Lanzarote of its obligations and demands compliance, the mayor of Teguise provides them with coverage, attempting to hold the Consortium responsible for the obligations of his water friends." This is how the PSOE spokesperson in Teguise, Marcos Bergaz, responded to the statement issued this Monday by the City Council, regarding the lack of water supply in La Graciosa.
He even accused Oswaldo Betancort of "acting as an employee of Canal Gestión", and publicly asked him to "stand on the side of Lanzarote."
Furthermore, he lamented the "ridiculous attempt by the mayor to convey to the public his supposed coordination with Canal Gestión to bring tanks to La Graciosa," as he states that it is "an obligation of the concessionaire company and was already required by the Consortium."
In fact, the Water Consortium has also sent a statement making public the letter it sent this Monday to the company, after receiving the same statement that Canal sent to the media, in which it announced this new breakdown in the conduit that carries water to the eighth island.
In that letter, the Consortium required Canal to guarantee "as a matter of urgency, the supply of drinking water to the population of La Graciosa." Furthermore, it reminded them that, as established in the Technical Specifications that govern the concession, the concessionaire "is obliged to supply tanks to subscribers" when there is an interruption of service "for a period exceeding 24 hours."
Thus, it demanded that until the breakdown is resolved, it should enable several water tanks in the area of the Caleta de Sebo dock during these days "in order to avoid any type of shortage among users."
A few hours after the first statement notifying the breakdown, that is finally what Canal has announced it will do, moving a large tank to La Graciosa, but ignoring that it had been a requirement of the Consortium and the contract itself.
For his part, the mayor had announced that he was "coordinating" with the company to activate an "emergency plan" that would guarantee the supply, while blaming the Consortium for this situation.
"His complicity with Canal Gestión is embarrassing, trying to divert attention to the Cabildo in the face of the water company's inability to respond in a timely manner to a breakdown that has left La Graciosa without supply," said the socialist spokesperson, who has reproached the mayor for his "unqualifiable complacency with the failures of the Integral Water Cycle concessionaire in Lanzarote."
Furthermore, he has criticized the "opportunism with which Betancort has tried to point to the Water Consortium of Lanzarote as responsible for a situation that the concessionaire company must respond to."
