“The Canary Islands have a huge problem with urban wastewater. For years we have treated them as waste and not as a resource that we could reuse” and, thus, there are large areas of Tenerife that are neither connected to a sanitation network nor do they go through a treatment plant for everything they dump into the sea.
Especially in the South Region of the Island. In this area, the infrastructures were designed for a third or half of the current population and for a much lower number of tourists, which has meant that, when the purification and sanitation system does not can more, “the floodgates open” and, more or less treated, the garbage reaches the Atlantic, after passing through outfalls such as those of Granadilla, San Miguel, Las Galletas or Palm-Mar, to give just a few examples. This is how Professor Aridane González, professor at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria at the Institute of Oceanography and Global Change, explains it. This mentality of considering the sea a landfill is not unique to the Archipelago or to Spain. However, it has generated great problems for our country.
Millionaire condemnation to Spain
In fact, in 2018, the Court of Justice of the European Union imposed an initial fine of 12 million euros for untreated discharges into the sea in treatment plants in 17 nuclei, one of them in Valle de Güímar. Eleven million must be added to that figure every six months until the problem is resolved. In total, so far, more than 85 million euros. And the economy is not the most pressing issue.
“As a scientist, I cannot affirm that this is the origin of infections or damage to health, but it is evident that everything we have in our bodies goes into urban wastewater, whether it is drugs or COVID itself. In fact, both have been measured in them. If they are not treated, they are a focus of infections”, warns the professor. A focus of infections in the sea, near the coast.
Aridane González considers that “the treatment plants are not dimensioned and we must plan the evolution of the population in the coming years, in addition to taking into account that we have fifteen million tourists. Right now, the Canary Islands are only at 18% reuse of black water”, which could be a resource and not waste, if they were treated until they were converted into high-quality water.
The bad planning of decades ago is what has led the State Government, through the commercial entity Acuaes, to invest 141.4 million euros in the South of Tenerife in new treatment plants and systems to carry wastewater to them.
The aim is that, by 2024, the region will be able to treat 100% of its water, so that no polluting discharges into the sea are produced.
This figure has allowed the execution of works in the areas of Santiago del Teide-Guía de Isora, Arona, Granadilla de Abona and San Miguel de Abona, where the works have recently been awarded.
If the initial forecast was to allocate resources worth 170 million euros for the entire island, that horizon is now at 250. And the treatment plants already contemplate capacities much higher than current ones. The one in Montaña Reverón (Arona), for example, is designed for 240,000 people.
The South gains treatment capacity
It has improved. In 2019 Tenerife’s purification capacity was 40% and it is expected to reach full just five years later. From 24 cubic hectometres a year to sixty-three in 2024. At the state level, the Government sets 2025 as the date to stop dumping wastewater.
The new island councilor for this area, Blanca Pérez, has assured that ending the spills will be her priority. That the situation in the South is the worst on the Island is a fact that reflects the official statistics, which, however, do not reflect the entire reality. “What worries me the most about the discharges are those that are not registered,” acknowledges Aridane González, who explains that “there is more and more control over illegal discharges into the sea, which are being discovered thanks to the initiative of the population.” “There is more knowledge on the part of the authorities, but not 100% because there is no staff,” he remarks.
Discharging waste into the sea is not prohibited. There are authorizations for them granted by the Government of the Canary Islands, which requires that these waters have some type of prior treatment. This makes it possible to register discharges.
Hence, it can be known that the area with the greatest number is the southern slope, with more than a hundred, 55% of the total of Tenerife. Of these, the majority are in Candelaria (21), Arona (18), Adeje (13), Guía de Isora (11) and Granadilla and Santiago del Teide with ten discharge points each. 62% is urban wastewater.
Of the discharges recorded, 85% are active, with a total of ninety throughout the South. Candelaria (19), Arona (15), Adeje (12) and Guía de Isora stand out, with ten.
The South is at the forefront of active discharges, with 19 in Candelaria, 15 in Arona, 12 in Adeje and 10 in Guía de Isora
How many of all these discharges are authorized? Very few. Two thirds do not have the Authorization for Discharges from Land to Sea (AVM).
Of the 19 assets in Candelaria, only six, a third, have AVMs. In the case of the municipality of Adeje, slightly more than half, with seven. In Arona, five, while Granadilla de Abona has four and three Arafo or Guía de Isora.
Are there discharges in protected areas? Definitely. At least a third, according to the figures of the last census carried out by the Government of the Canary Islands.
In the Special Conservation Zone (ZEC) of the Teno-Rasca Marine Strip (between Arona and Buenavista del Norte) there are forty water discharges contemplated. In the ZEC Sebadales del Sur de Tenerife (Arona, San Miguel and Granadilla) there are a total of 16.
