The municipality of La Guancha once again has restrictions on tap water to consume, drink and prepare food. The decision was adopted and communicated yesterday by the acting mayor, Antonio Hernández, because the deposits are at critical levels and it is necessary to stop the desalination of the incoming water to incorporate raw water and recover it as soon as possible.
“It is a technique that we use to increase the flow of water and guarantee the supply for other uses, such as domestic tasks or personal hygiene for the entire population, worsening the quality, and only La Guancha can do it because it is one of the few municipalities in Tenerife that treats the water”, declares the president.
With this, he adds, “we have managed to go from 88 to 108 cubic meters in one day but those 20 that have entered directly into the tanks have not been treated and that worsens the quality of the water because fluoride levels skyrocket, but it is a necessary measure because we have to guarantee that there is a supply”.
New samples will be taken on Monday to analyze fluoride and depending on the results it will be decided whether the restriction is maintained for the entire population or only for children under 8 years of age.
“The analysis cannot be carried out immediately because you have to wait for the homogenization process of the treated and untreated water, which began to enter the tanks yesterday. In addition, the treatment system has been changed and it is not known how much fluoride will amount to”, explains Antonio Hernández.
“Our priority is that there is no shortage of water in any home,” he stresses, while assuring that he has contacted the town halls of the region, Balten and the Insular Water Council (Ciatfe) to buy more water for the municipality “but none has”.
The rest of the corporations in the Northwest and Isla Baja have not had supply problems so far, but it is true that the arrival of summer increases the risk.
In May 2021, the mayors of this area of the Island came together to demand more support from higher administrations to guarantee municipal public supply, specify the necessary investments and bet on another model considering that the current one “is from the last century ”.
During a meeting with the president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Pedro Martín, an infrastructure plan amounting to more than 2.2 million euros was drawn up, which included a shock plan to address the most critical situations that occur in municipalities that lose more than 60% of their water in the deficient networks they have.
