The Minister of Ecological Transition, the Fight against Climate Change and Territorial Planning of the Government of the Canary Islands, José Antonio Valbuena, and the mayor of La Laguna, Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, have signed this Tuesday the general inter-administrative action protocol for the execution of the La Laguna flood parkthe hydraulic infrastructure with which part of the old wetland that gave its name to the city of La Laguna is to be recovered.
Luis Yeray Gutiérrez indicates that with this protocol “we take the first step in the process of recovering the old lagoon and we express the firm will of both administrations to carry out a project that is called to be of vital importance for the city. The floodplain park of La Laguna is not only a necessary infrastructure to prevent flooding in the lagoon plain, but it will have a clear environmental value and as a recreation area, in addition to its undoubted historical connotations; and on this road we will go hand in hand with the mixed company Teidagua and the Government of the Canary Islands to make it a reality as soon as possible”.
For his part, José Antonio Valbuena stressed that “with this heading it is shown that this is not a propaganda or electoral project, but a real initiative for La Laguna, which already has a financial record in this year’s accounts of the Government of the Canary Islands and that it will be declared of regional interest to shorten deadlines and that soon the Laguna population can enjoy this space for the protection of nature and climate action.
The protocol, which will take effect from this same Tuesday and will be valid until the execution of the works, breaks down the objectives, consideration and actions to start this project into twelve points. For its promotion, a mixed follow-up commission will be created.
The first of the clauses establishes that the Government and the City Council want to “collaborate in the search for a solution that at a supra-municipal level reduces or mitigates the risk of flooding and regulates the flow of the Santos ravine, based on the operation of natural systems, through a multifunctional public hydraulic infrastructure in a sustainable space, which contributes to improving the environment and the biodiversity of native flora and fauna, generating security and value for citizens”.
Protocol of the flood park of La Laguna
The protocol accredits the regional interest and strategic nature of the project, “given the multidiversity that this pioneering initiative in the Canary Islands entails, which exceeds the strict scope of a municipality, due to its impact on the entire Santos hydrographic basin up to its mouth in the coast”. In addition, it is indicated that “all the studies carried out will serve as a basis to prove the strategic nature of the area, its regional interest, and the need to prepare a Project of Regional Interest (PIA), for the management, design and execution of the general system ”.
The La Laguna flood park fulfills a triple function: hydraulic, social and environmental. The urgency of this intervention is justified by the real risk of flooding in the Vega Lagunera area “and that this risk affects consolidated urban areas with a high concentration of population.”
The protocol recalls that the current General Planning Plan (from 2004) is well before the entry into force of the legislation and community directive on the assessment and management of flood risks, as well as the document prepared in 2014 by the Council Water Island of Tenerife. For this reason there is a “lack of foresight in the current planning of the areas for which there is a potential risk of significant flooding, which makes it necessary to adapt to the climatic reality”.
Both parties will carry out the actions that serve as a basis to prove the strategic nature of the area, its regional interest, and the need to prepare a Project of Regional Interest (PIA) for the general hydraulic infrastructure system; among them, documentary, technical, legal and administrative justification of the need to develop the project and the environmental and hydrological study.
The City Council and the Government of the Canary Islands will sign a development agreement that establishes the financing mechanisms and the contributions of each administration. The City Council plans to finance the acquisition of the land that is finally affected, as well as the project for the execution of the works. For its part, the regional executive will be in charge of preparing the PIA document, in addition to its processing and approval and may later agree on the financing of the works that are determined.
