The arrival of the caisson ship "Kugira" to the Muelle de Los Mármoles brings us a little closer to our goal of getting our port recognized once and for all as a strategic infrastructure for the island of Lanzarote and for its development, fully independent.
After having to overcome several obstacles and after several delays in the start of the works, now we can say that the extension of the docking pier is underway in something more than 400 meters. These works will increase the competitiveness of a Port that, until now, has been abandoned by the Port Authority of Las Palmas.
Yes, I mean abandoned. We cannot describe as anything other than abandonment the continuous neglect that Lanzarote has suffered in the planning of investments in port infrastructure for the entire province. We have always been considered second-class citizens.
Evidently, the fact that in a few months we will have a dike with two lateral gates of three meters in height, which will facilitate the arrival at our port of those large ships that we have so often seen pass by when the weather conditions or the draft of the dock prevented docking, is a very important advance, but the fight does not end here.
Now that we have finally managed to get an intervention underway that, in addition to gaining more space for ships, will enable the increase of operability in the docks of Los Mármoles and the cruise dock on days of southeast storms, we are not going to stop.
The next step will be to ensure that the decisions regarding the management of our dock are no longer in the hands of a Port Authority that, let's not forget, is also in charge of managing the Port of La Luz, our most direct competitor.
Let our demand to achieve port independence be heard, something that other ports with worse results and a less strategic position have already achieved; that we manage to have our port managed directly by the people of Lanzarote, has to stop being a utopia to become a reality.
We have enough basis and argumentation for that to be the case. Firstly, at the state level there are ports that are loss-making but are managed directly by the place; secondly, the Chamber of Commerce of Lanzarote has been demanding this for some time, every year we lose thousands of tourists for not having the port that we have been claiming and demanding for years, which in turn also causes economic losses for the different sectors whose activity depends on the port (taxis, shops, bars and restaurants, excursion organizing agencies, etcetera).
Too much damage to our economy that we would not have to suffer if we had a totally independent Port Authority.
Samuel Martín, Candidate for CC-PNC Lanzarote to the Congress of Deputies
