Our Island has an area of 845.94 square kilometers, with almost half of its territory protected (41.5%). It has almost 159,000 registered inhabitants and a population density of 167.74 inhabitants/km2, while the Spanish average is 94. We must also consider the 2.69 million visitors registered last year. It is a small and overpopulated territory.
In recent years, a new hotel has been built in Playa Blanca, the largest on the Island, with 1400 beds. Another is being built, a stone's throw from the previous one, with 700 beds, and perhaps this process will not stop here. I am not counting other smaller accommodations that have been put into operation in recent years. We already have about 93,000 official accommodation places and a few more unregistered ones. It seems that this urban voracity has no limits. Everything will be legal, but our territory cannot support it. It is what it is, and it cannot be stretched like chewing gum.
This situation leads to overcrowding, and if we consider the deficient island infrastructures in collective transport, health, education and in almost all services, it leads us to saturation, deterioration and loss of quality of life. There is a lack of residential housing, and official protection housing is almost non-existent. People living in caravans. The scarce rental offer registers abusive prices.
The political power has a lot of responsibility in what happens, new constructions cannot be authorized without taking into account their consequences. Labor is imported to build, then to maintain and offer services. Where are they going to live, send their children to school, go to the doctor or receive any service?
But those who have unauthorized vacation rentals are also responsible for this deterioration. Accommodation in tents set up on rooftops, agricultural land or in commercial premises. Rental of bunk beds in old businesses now closed. Those who transform their garage into a poorly ventilated house without asking for any permission, which they then rent at a gold price.
We must stop and reflect on our future. Take into account ecological parameters that help define sustainability, such as the Carbon Footprint. Recover initiatives such as the Eco-tax, already in force in some tourist destinations.
Political and administrative action. Ensure regulatory compliance. As citizens of this Island, we cannot stand idly by.
The momentary advantage brings us closer to self-destruction. Lanzarote lives on its natural beauty, its landscape, on being a sustainable island with a good quality of life, not on its overcrowding. Our island is our home, as well as the goose that lays the golden eggs. Let's not make the saying "Everyone killed her and she died alone" come true.