Lanzarote has a huge deficit of places in residences for the elderly. The population is aging and longevity is increasing, but the supply of places remains stagnant. We know that there are already some 19,000 people on the island over 65 years of age and that, in just ten years, that number of people will double.
What should be a cause for joy, becomes a source of concern and anguish, because the administrations with powers in this area do not seem sensitive to the issue. One day yes and another also, the citizens demanding places in residences tell us about the difficulties there are on the island to get one; there are many more demands than offers and there are only 227 places.
They are what they are, but, in this framework of deficiency, it is surprising, above all, what is happening with the construction of the Tahiche Residence for the Elderly, which we helped to promote by ceding the land from the Teguise City Council and collaborating so that the governments of the Canary Islands and the previous Cabildo (of the Canarian Coalition) allocated the necessary item for its execution, but it is still not executed. The first stone was laid 10 months ago and nothing more has been heard of the work. As if that were the objective, to put a stone, and not to put into operation the 180 places it houses. Nobody says anything, much less the Cabildo of Lanzarote, which laid the first stone but now hides its hand. It does not clarify the problems it has encountered so that the work is paralyzed, nor does it seem to have too much interest in seriously addressing such a fair and necessary demand.
When we should be designing an island network of residences to care for our elders with the quality they deserve, and foresee a future with more elders, some waste time in political tricks that reduce an entire residence to a single stone. And that cannot be supported. The Cabildo has to give the appropriate explanations now and the necessary steps so that this work progresses and is completed.
You don't play with our elders. Their quality of life is very important so that they are being denied infrastructures that are already budgeted, tendered and should be executed. The deficit of places in residences for the elderly in Lanzarote is one of our great shortcomings and we cannot wait any longer to reverse this situation. We must work from now on so that there is a program of investments in this matter. Demand will continue to grow by itself, but to guarantee supply, we must work seriously and quickly. And the first thing to do is to finish the Tahiche residence as soon as possible and start with the next one. But for that it is necessary that the Cabildo abandon the triumphalism of the first stones and focus on finishing the works.
