In a Lanzarote where the territory has been irreparably damaged by the unscrupulous management of a few. On an island where old quarries, dumps or places in a regrettable situation are not restored. In an environment where there are hardly any projects for plant restoration, they want to continue committing environmental outrages.
The topic I am writing about is none other than the astonishing news that has appeared in the media in recent weeks, Yaiza wants to build a "natural" pool in the coastal town of El Golfo. The project also contemplates carrying out works on the town's sanitation network and paving or embellishing the town's maritime avenue, actions that are very necessary.
You see, I don't know if it's that I don't understand the news, but my perplexity doesn't stop growing, really? Is it necessary to make a pool that has little natural in the pools of El Golfo? Is an action of this magnitude necessary in an area as environmentally sensitive as the vicinity of the Timanfaya National Park?
It is a verifiable fact that El Golfo needs a series of improvements at a structural and economic level, but it is not time to create pharaonic or totemic works, it is time to act locally and surgically. Lanzarote is sold to the whole world as a destination where nature is the protagonist, wouldn't it be more logical to invest in converting the intertidal area of El Golfo into a space for observation, interpretation and respect of marine fauna? I understand that many elderly people or people with reduced mobility want to enjoy a swim, it is an idyllic place, nestled in the middle of the volcano. From my point of view, respectful actions can be undertaken such as improving access, establishing bathing areas where dangerous stones that move with the tide are removed (as families have always done personally in the town's pools) and putting rescue units among other types of actions.
This town, like many others, suffers from the endemic evil that prevails in Lanzarote, an almost exclusive dependence on mass tourism, with all the commercial or productive surface of the town being destined to the service sector. Isn't it time to look to the future? We are in time to change course, to do things well, to create a better tomorrow for the generations to come, to make our children see that we must not destroy the environment but adapt to it.
El Golfo needs a plan, it needs to make its streets passable, have public trees that provide shade, ask for guidance and advice from the Starlight Foundation and the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands to see the possibilities that the enclave has to observe the night sky. It needs an improvement in the playgrounds and have a small civic center that provides the people who live in that beautiful town, the possibility of organizing and creating community but also culture. Accessibility is needed, by this I mean that the town can be walked, without fear that cars can hurt you, but above all, public transport is needed. The landscape of the place is visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists a year, isn't it logical to have a bus service to reduce carbon emissions?
Lanzarote is dying, it suffers from a progress that we have not been able to manage. We are still in time to create on the island, a model of our own that serves to make a sustainable development through our idiosyncrasy. I urge civil society, political authorities, ecological and cultural associations, the business and commercial sector, among others, to generate a debate and a deep reflection on how to create a path of progress. A future without continuing to destroy what feeds us, which is none other than the land we travel, our ancestors traveled and the people who will have to live on this very special island will travel.
