Eloy Vera
Puerto del Rosario (Fuerteventura), May 20 (EFE).- Fuerteventura adds days, sometimes weeks, without the tap of thousands of homes releasing a drop of water. The water emergency and the continuous breaks in the supply network are worrying and is one of the great challenges that the party that directs the Cabildo Majorero must face after the elections on May 28.
The lack of water has been one of the components that has marked the history of Fuerteventura. It produced misery, migrations and the arrival of cistern ships at the port to quench thirst. The appearance of the first water treatment plants, at the end of the sixties, allowed the Majorero to breathe easy.
In the XXI century, the ghost of the lack of water has returned to fly over the island. The obsolete distribution network has not been able to cope with a population of more than 120,000 inhabitants and strong tourist pressure, and the situation has forced the Cabildo to declare a water emergency.
For months, the fields have dried up and producers have been forced to reduce their harvests; the population gets tired of adding breakdowns and in cafeterias and restaurants they are forced to close the bathrooms to customers and serve coffee in plastic cups.
The water problem will be one of the first challenges faced by the party that comes to govern the Cabildo, an institution with powers in Water.
LOLA GARCIA (CC)
The nationalist Lola García became president of the Cabildo after the 2019 elections, although she only lasted in office for 17 days. A motion of no confidence replaced her with the socialist Blas Acosta and ended 20 years of nationalist government in the corporation.
García walks the streets these days distributing ballots for the vote. For a few moments, to ensure that he “urges” to continue working to reverse the current water emergency situation that Fuerteventura is going through.
For this, “an agreement is necessary for water on the island, with the involvement of the Cabildo and town halls; join efforts between administrations and work on different levels ”, he explains to EFE. Also have more funding from the State and the Canarian Government.
“A close-up of immediate work and constant management, with continuous monitoring of the daily actions of the Fuerteventura Water Supply Consortium, but also with actions to improve the supply by the town halls and continue developing the actions prioritized by the CAAF technicians, who improve distribution and production at the insular level”.
A Cabildo with a president and a single counselor from the same party “has only made the situation worse, delaying the execution of important works and investments such as the drive to the main deposit of La Herradura,” he maintains.
BLAS ACOSTA (PSOE)
“If I am president, this problem (the water problem) will not reach July of this year. Before there will be a provisional solution and before Christmas we will be carrying out works to expand desalination and improve the distribution network deposits”, says Blas Acosta, Socialist candidate for the Cabildo and one of the three presidents that the Institution has had this legislature.
Acosta puffs out his chest and believes he has the solution to end the island’s water problems “immediately and urgently.” The solution: rent two or three portable desalination plants that would be located at different points; supply sufficient water to the critical points of the island and “develop, through the decree of water emergency, infrastructure works, in the network and deposits.”
According to the PSOE candidate, this “formula makes it possible to speed up contracting terms to do, in one or two years, what has not been done in 20.”
Acosta takes the opportunity to point to Mario Cabrera (CC), president of the Cabildo for three legislatures, as responsible for the situation, for “his way of directing the CAAF for a decade, that seemed like his farmhouse.”
70% of the water consumed depends on Puerto del Rosario. The current drive from the Puerto del Rosario seawater desalination plant (EDAM) to the storage and regulation tanks of La Herradura, were put into service between 1991 and 1998, but have already reached the end of their useful life. . The rupture of that pipe is the cause of the situation.
When nationalists, popular and Municipal Assemblies of Fuerteventura governed in the Cabildo, they bid for 3,232,405.90 euros and an execution period of eight months for the work. As of May 2023, it is still not finished.
JESSICA DE LEÓN (PP)
Finishing this work, according to the PP candidate for the Cabildo Jessica de León, would imply a future production capacity of the EDAM of Puerto del Rosario of about 43,000 m3/day; It is necessary to expand its production by some 7,200 m3/day and, on the other hand, the improvement of the Corralejo EDAM (5,000 m3/day).
These works would also make it possible to increase the flow contribution to the Tiscamanita reservoir, which supplies a large part of the south.
In addition, the popular one claims the need to create an “anti-leak plan”, because at present almost 29% of the water that is desalinated is lost; implement clean energy urgently and “a great Pact for Water to follow the road map set during this legislature.”
SERGIO LLORET (AMF)
On the 10th, President Sergio Lloret (Municipal Assemblies for Fuerteventura) went to the Civil Guard barracks to denounce an alleged manipulation of the insular water network. There have been 12 breakdowns in two years, the last five in less than five weeks.
Lloret is committed to the Insular Plan for Cooperation in Guarantee Actions for Domestic Water Supply (PICABAS), approved by the technical commission of the Fuerteventura Water Supply Consortium, the Insular Water Council and the water infrastructure services of the Cabildo, “It’s transparent and it’s ongoing,” he says.
With a budget of 240 million euros, this plan includes three projects of island interest: the second expansion of the desalination plant in Corralejo and Puerto del Rosario, pipes and tanks to increase storage capacity and the new desalination plant in the southern region.
If he continues as president, his proposal to solve the problem is to continue the PICABAS roadmap.
“During our legislature, we have carried out the PICABAS comprehensive plan, which has been studied, defined, approved and is currently being executed. Unlike others, who ignored this problem for more than 20 years, in just two years we have achieved what has not been done in decades”, he maintains.
LOLA MUÑOZ (UNITED YES WE CAN)
From United Sí Podemos they believe that it is “essential” to make investments in infrastructures and technologies that allow a more efficient and sustainable management of water.
The coalition candidate for the Cabildo, Lola Muñoz, lists proposals. Among them, implement the measures contemplated in the Hydrological Plan.
“This establishes a series of measures that must be carried out to solve the supply problems we have on the island,” he says.
“To achieve this, we will put all our efforts into devoting the necessary human and financial resources to comply with what is established in this plan and we will also establish periodic meetings with the town halls so that there is good coordination when implementing the necessary measures to solve this problem. ”, forward.
Lastly, it is committed to aiding people with low economic resources for the installation of drums to accumulate water for days when there are cuts. EFE
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