LA LAGUNA (TENERIFE), June 16. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Cáritas de Tenerife has asked the public administrations this Thursday to take a “long look” at La Palma because the social emergency derived from the volcanic eruption of Cumbre Vieja “is going to last for years”.
This was stated this Thursday to the media by the entity’s secretary, Ricardo Iglesias, during the presentation of the report corresponding to 2021 in which he remarked that the hope of many people “is going to fade”.
The entity has served 860 families and 2,400 people (including 500 minors) on the island since the eruption began thanks to donations amounting to six million euros, with which, apart from immediate care, it designs programs for next years.
He has recognized that they were not “used” to an emergency like that of the ‘beautiful island’ in which “thousands of people, overnight, fell into exclusion and most have not left, it is being a great challenge” .
Along these lines, he commented that the entity carried out a process of “internal reflection” because they knew that they had to “continue” on the island when the television cameras “left”, hence they have an aid plan for the coming years.
Iglesias has pointed out that the volcano brought out the “courage and faith” of the palm population, including its own volunteers, at the foot of the emergency despite having “lost everything”, and has also demonstrated the “inability” of the public power to give an “appropriate response” to the situation.
In his opinion, infrastructures must be rebuilt, but also many “lives” because there are “physical and mental injuries” and a lot of “difficulty” in finding “decent work.”
He has not hidden that the economic situation is “dramatic” and weighed down by a “serious” housing problem, since there are people who can access their home “but will not be able to live” in it and others who want to leave the hotels but “do not have where to go”.
To this is added that there are no housing rental contracts, so those affected cannot request public aid, and “prices have skyrocketed”, even for people who have work. “It’s impossible,” she said.
It has also had an impact on the “sluggish response” of the institutions because “they want to do many things but do not know how” and the bureaucracy takes away “agility”, while there are “projects in retreat” due to lack of funds.
The bishop, Bernardo Álvarez, has expressed himself in the same vein, warning that “unless all this is speeded up, La Palma is going to lose a lot of population”, focusing on the closure of Puerto Naos, “a very important tourist focus” that gave a lot of employment and where many people lived.
