The Monitoring Commission of the agreement for the execution and exploitation of the sanitation and purification actions in Tenerife met yesterday in Madrid to certify these first project awards. The meeting was attended by the general director of Acuaes, María Rosa Cobo; the counselor of the Sustainable Development and Fight against Climate Change Area of the Cabildo of Tenerife, Javier Rodríguez Medina; and the manager of the Tenerife Island Water Council (CIATF), Javier Davara, as well as heads of the technical and financial teams of the state trading company and Ciatf.
During the month of September, the minutes of commencement of the works of the Granadilla and the West systems, in Guía de Isora, were signed, both subject to compliance with the environmental conditions established by the existence of protected species. The action will be co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund Feder 2014-2020. The execution period is 24 months in the case of the treatment plants of Los Lawyers, in Granadilla, and of the West, in Guía de Isora, a period that allows compliance with the planned program. The execution time of the rest of the projects, the Treatment and Pumping Station and collectors and impulses, is shorter and, therefore, the completion of the works of the two purification stations (WWTP) is what it will allow the start-up of complete sanitation and purification systems.
During the meeting, the commitment of the State and Council of Tenerife in the development of the actions that will make it possible to resolve “definitively” the problem of non-compliance with the European directives on sanitation and purification and on water protection was revealed. This is the second meeting held this year by the Monitoring Commission provided for in the Agreement signed on July 8, 2020. The previous one was held in Tenerife on May 11. The actions are aimed at improving the sanitation and purification of the territorial systems of Arona Este-San Miguel, Oeste (Guía de Isora), Acentejo, Granadilla de Abona and Valle de La Orotava with a total investment of around 170 million euros . In principle, they will be half financed, 85 million for each administration, between the Ministry of Ecological Transition, on which Acuaes depends, and the Cabildo with the contribution also of a part of European funds.
“We will soon see that those much-needed treatment plants are being built”
Montaña Reverón WWTP
In addition to the start of these works in the south of the island, the start of the contract for the drafting of the project and execution of the Montaña Reverón WWTP, in the Arona Este-San Miguel system, has also been reported. Summer 2022, after the approval of the project, and the tender for the works of collectors and impulses of Costa and Medianías in both areas. The actions of the collectors of the La Orotava Valley have also been monitored. There have been 14 companies that have submitted to the tender for the execution of the works, whose award is expected at the end of this year. Finally, the technical difficulties, due to the morphology of the terrain, noted in the research project for the validation of the drainage wells for the discharge of treated water from the future regional Edar of Acentejo have been realized.
“Territory failed”
The insular councilor Javier Rodríguez Medina is forceful: «The Canary Islands is a failed territory because it is the region of Europe with the greater number of accumulated penalties for not treating the water adequately ». He adds that “Tenerife is not an isolated case because it is also in an unfavorable situation with illegal dumping along our entire coast.”
The counselor emphasizes that “to end this situation, the Cabildo formalized the largest agreement in its history on July 8 of last year for the construction and development of five large sanitation and purification systems.”
Reversing this, says Rodríguez, “was a priority for this government group despite not being showy works.” He concludes: «I insist that it is not a political commitment but a reality. The evidence is this amount, almost 83 million euros, in works already awarded. We will see shortly how the shovels are already beginning to build these much-needed treatment plants. ”
The forecast is that Tenerife will award 85% of the water purification works before the end of the year. The first institutional meeting with Acues last May already defined a map of actions to reduce to a minimum in three years, with a schedule whose threshold is 2023, the problem of irregular discharges. The objective is to put an end to a situation as serious as it is historical.
The Monitoring Commission has established the calendar of a meeting every six months. It is made up of four members, two from Acuaes and two from the Cabildo. The summary is the collaboration –with the common work of the technical teams of Acuaes and Ciatf– for the development of the five comprehensive sanitation and purification systems. Once the works are finished, the irregular discharges into the sea, which have cost Tenerife and the Canary Islands so expensive, will be permanently eliminated.
