The deputy for Lanzarote and La Graciosa in the Parliament of the Canary Islands and island president of Nueva Canarias-Bloque Canarista (NC-bc), Yoné Caraballo, wanted to express his support for the thousands of residents of the island who in recent weeks have been suffering the continuous water cuts by the company Canal Gestión Lanzarote.
Thus, Caraballo reiterates that the water situation is of "extreme gravity" due to the frequency and duration of the cuts, and because it already affects practically the entire island.
“The population of Lanzarote has been enduring a problem created by a gradual policy of dismantling essential public services such as water for a long time”, maintains Caraballo, who asks “how much has this decision to privatize water cost each resident of Lanzarote by Coalición Canaria (CC) with the connivance of all the other parties that have had government responsibilities in both the City Councils and the Cabildo”.
The Canarian assures that, in the medium and long term, “this type of ultraliberal policies that are justified by a supposed efficiency in management, are more expensive for public coffers and lead the service to a drift of uncontrolled spending, staff cuts, decapitalization and, in some cases, bankruptcy”.
“Once these services are privatized and it is demonstrated that their management is creating more problems than solutions, the process of recovering them by public administrations is complex and arduous”, argues Caraballo, who sees it inevitable to go to a “recovery of control” of water if we want to tackle the water crisis.
Moreover, the deputy argues that “there are voices saying that the Community of Madrid could consider withdrawing Canal Gestión from Lanzarote, a subsidiary of Canal de Isabel II, given the economic losses that this entails and the bad image that its incursion on the island is generating”.
“It is time to prepare politically and institutionally for a possible in extremis withdrawal of Canal Gestión, and not be caught without a roadmap”, comments Caraballo, who sees “urgent to have an alternative plan to this ruinous situation in which they have put us”.
