SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 16 May. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The collaboration of citizens has been essential to detect and remove a large glass display case with broken pieces that had been transported in a vehicle to the beginning of the road that goes down to Bejía, in El Batán, an area of high landscape value. and natural of the Anaga Rural Park.
The Environmental Protection Unit (UPMA) of La Laguna has received the notice and has made arrangements for the urgent collection by Urbaser, a concessionaire company of the municipal waste management and cleaning service, of a spill that “poses a serious risk of fire and, due to sharp surfaces, of danger to animal species in an area declared a Biosphere Reserve”.
This is reported by the Councilor for the Environment and Fight against Climate Change of La Laguna, José Luis Hernández, who regrets that “someone has had the ability to load this piece of furniture, three meters long and very heavy, in a vehicle and travel kilometers on the road to come and abandon it in this protected area, an effort that could well have been used to take it to a waste management point or have saved it by requesting the municipal equipment collection service, which is free” and which is available on the telephone 900 102 925.
Given the unique characteristics of the area, the matter has been brought to the attention of the Ecological Police of La Laguna and the piece of furniture was removed by the Municipal Services shortly after the notice to avoid greater harm.
The person responsible for the dumping could face a fine of between more than 3,000 euros and more than 60,000, since the uncontrolled abandonment, dumping or disposal of waste that, due to its volume or dangerousness, poses serious damage to natural resources is considered as very serious fault in the Municipal Ordinance for Cleaning Public Spaces and Urban Solid Waste Management.
In addition, the UPMA located these days an improvised scrap dump in a rural area of Ortigal and several abandoned and disassembled vehicles in various rural and natural areas of the municipality, actions that have already been brought to the attention of the authorities.
The Unit, dependent on the Department of the Environment, was launched 16 months ago and has three members who, in this period, have drawn up more than fifty inspection reports and their actions have allowed the removal of more than 1,000 tons of discharges in various parts of the town, in many cases, by the people responsible for the infraction.
Hernández highlighted the “enormous service that UPMA is providing in the municipality, a team committed and involved in the preservation of our natural and rural spaces that is allowing us to locate and act on numerous waste or sewage discharges, but also to improve the conservation of forests and the local fauna and flora, in addition to promoting environmental education and preventing possible environmental damage”.
The councilor asks the public to be aware of a spill in these spaces, to inform the Unit by sending the location, images and all information that may be relevant to locating the people to the address upma@lalaguna.es responsible and to be able, thus, to claim their removal and replacement to the previous state or proceed to act in a subsidiary manner.
This Unit continues the local tradition of the Guardamontes, a body with almost 5 centuries of history and that maintains in La Laguna one of the oldest examples in Spain. Currently, it has increased its functions and has among its objectives the preservation and sustainable use of the environment throughout the municipality, through control, dissuasive actions and monitoring of discharges in rural and natural areas; environmental education and awareness; the detection of invasive species of flora and fauna; the control of illegal hunting and fishing or any other activity that may be harmful to the natural environment, all in cooperation with the municipal Ecological Police and the different administrations that have powers in environmental protection.
