“Tremendously fruitful.” This is how the president of the Provincial Federation of Construction Entities of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Fepeco), Óscar Izquierdo, described yesterday the meeting held with the seven mayors of the Northwest of the Island to learn first-hand about the real situation of a region in which some 50,000 people live (4.58% of the population of Tenerife), its main problems and analyze possible solutions that will remove it from “historical oblivion” to which it has been subjected for decades.
The meeting, which lasted several hours, was held at the Parque del Drago Interpretation Center, in Icod de los Vinos, and was attended by more than 50 businessmen, in addition to the municipal officials of this municipality, Francis González (CC); from San Juan de la Rambla, Ezequiel Domínguez, (PSOE); La Guancha, Antonio Hernández (PP); Los Silos, Macarena Fuentes (CC); Buenavista del Norte, Antonio González (Yes you can); Garachico, José Heriberto González (CC), and the Councilor for Welfare and Commerce of El Tanque, Vanesa Hernández, because the councilor was unable to attend.
After outlining the needs of each locality, they agreed that, in order to overcome this “historic debt” that exists with the Northwest, it is necessary to define among all which region is wanted, with a great agreement in which the Government of the Canary Islands, the Cabildo de Tenerife, the private company and the unions.
Izquierdo blamed supra-municipal administrations for this oversight; specifically, the regional Executive and the Island Corporation. In addition, he stressed that “if it succeeds, it is thanks to the work of local institutions and mayors, who with extraordinary efforts and forgetting about political ideologies work in the area,” he declared.
For this reason, Fepeco offered all its support “for a modern and sustainable construction, which enables economic growth and social development in a region that needs to be pleasant, attractive again and become a place of opportunities so that young people do not go and once again have a sufficient number of inhabitants to make economic activity possible”.
One of Fepeco’s biggest concerns is the depopulation of the area, “which is not radical, but it is continuous,” Izquierdo added. In this regard, he made it clear that “if we are not capable of transferring to the public administrations the need for hydraulic, sanitary, primary sector and highway infrastructures, so that it can once again flourish as it once did, we run the risk that this This area of the Island becomes an emptied Tenerife and that would be the responsibility of the Government of the Canary Islands and the Cabildo”, he stated.
In this sense, the president of the employers’ association emphasized the importance of having a higher quality tourism, differentiating it from sun and beach, an offer that prevails in the south of the Island, and betting on another cultural, patrimonial, nature and trails, as well as gastronomy.
Water, the main problem
One of the main demands put forward by the councilors is related to water, both drinking and for agriculture, and for this it is essential that higher administrations get involved and build the necessary infrastructures.
“From Fepeco we demand an urgent solution to this problem from the Cabildo and tomorrow (for today) we are going to ask for a meeting with the Insular Water Council in which the mayors and mayors also participate because it is essential,” said Óscar Izquierdo.
Another of the municipal demands is related to terrestrial communications. “The northwest cannot be isolated, the population centers have to be connected to the Insular Ring and that has to be taken into account by the Department of Public Works of the Government of the Canary Islands, otherwise, it could be death for this area when it would have to be the economic revulsion”, said its president.
To this is added the corseting of the public administration, which does not allow them to develop, neither in time nor in the right way, all the projects that they have planned and want to carry out. “The Cabildo can do very important work in this area and meet with all the municipalities to solve the need for technical personnel in the area,” said Izquierdo.
As they told him, there are many tenders and projects that must be postponed because they do not have the necessary structure to be able to face them, “even following 19th century procedures.”
“We businessmen have been impressed because the mayors have given a sign of responsibility and an example that it is possible to sit at a table to talk and solve problems beyond any ideology. They have given us a lesson in politics as a public service, ”she stressed.
