SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Jan. 21 (EUROPA PRESS) –
Sí se puede and Izquierda Unida Canaria (IUC) prepare the accusation against the politicians responsible for the discharge of residual waters in the Güímar Industrial Park after the magistrate of the Court Number One of Güímar has issued an order in which he proposes the prosecution of the current mayor of Candelaria, who is also president of the Canarian Federation of Municipalities (Fecam), Mari Brito (PSOE), as well as the former mayors, Gumersindo García (Candelaria), Carmen Luisa Castro (Güímar) and José Juan Lemes (Arafo ), for alleged continued crimes against the environment and prevarication in the management of wastewater discharges into the sea in this polygon.
Both organizations underline in a joint note the importance of their complaints to stop the biggest environmental attack against the coast of Tenerife and celebrate that, after five years, the court has passed a decisive phase of the procedure, which will give way to the opening of oral trial, in which the facts and criminal responsibilities will be finally established.
Likewise, they announce that they will study political actions in the municipalities of Valle de Güímar, where these two parties maintain their representation.
The judicial order, he comments, “is forceful and leaves no room for doubt about the knowledge of the facts by political leaders, their inaction and the negative impact of these discharges on the environment and the health of citizens.”
Regarding the qualification of the facts, they comment that “it is established that they break the environmental legislation, that the facilities of the polygon are obsolete and lack maintenance and that there is no trace of life on the coast of the polygon”.
The eco-social transition spokesperson for Sí se puede, Rubén Fuentes, draws attention to the fact that “they have turned the Güímar coastline into a desert, caused by uncontrolled industrial discharges for decades; they have destroyed marine biodiversity in an environmental attack that for the valley it is equivalent and as serious as the extraction of aggregates in the Güímar ravines, that is why we had to demand responsibilities”.
In his opinion, “we are in a phase in which the oral trial will establish who is criminally responsible, but, in any case, we have to remember that, in this matter, all the administrations have acted negligently” .
The island co-spokesperson for IUC in Tenerife, who is also a councilor in the Güímar City Council for the coalition made up of IUC and Sí se puede, Nayra Caraballero, highlights that the order “reinforces and gives value” to the complaints expressed for more than ten years in the three affected municipalities “and that were consciously ignored by those who held positions of responsibility in environmental quality”.
In his opinion, “there has been and continues to be an obvious risk to people’s health and the quality of the waters, which affect the entire marine ecosystem, even today a large number of discharges are discharged that triple the levels of contamination allowed.
CONTAMINATION LEVELS
Both organizations denounced the events in July 2017, assuring before the court that industrial water had been dumped into the sea for several decades without any type of treatment, despite containing highly polluting components derived from its use in industrial processes with toxic products of all.
The complaint highlighted that the levels of contamination double, triple or quadruple the reference values established in the regulations, so that the values related to heavy metals are also not met, which is a good example of the seriousness of the situation.
In May 2018, Izquierda Unida Canaria and Sí se puede appeared as a popular accusation in the case.
The two parties have drawn attention to the fact that these discharges incomprehensibly had an authorization from the Environment Ministry of the Canary Islands Government by Resolutions since 1998, an authorization “that should not have been granted” due to the lack of a treatment plant and the characteristics of these waters, which come from industrial processes and contain highly polluting materials, including heavy metals.
