Escolástico Gil, mayor of El Rosario, shows his “discomfort” at the continuous water cuts in the upper area of the municipality that he attributes to “the deficient hydraulic network of the Tenerife II prison.” Gil corrects Minister Teresa Ribera, who visited the Island this week when she affirms that the problems stem from “the lack of municipal investment.” The mayor makes it clear that the reason must be sought in “mismanagement by the state regarding the supply to the prison.” It also maintains that the Council of Ministers of the Government of Spain “should include the improvement of the tank and the water network – of the prison – in the Amortization Plan and Creation of Penitentiary Centers.”
The mayor of Rosario underlines that Tenerife II is “a critical infrastructure of the State” located in the municipality that shares a hydraulic network with the homes, “despite the repeated requests that we have made to make its supply independent.” The Minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge last Thursday attributed the shortcomings of the prison to the fact that the city council did not make the necessary investments, “even leading to collaboration with the Cabildo de Tenerife.”
Escolástico Gil categorically denies Ribera’s words: “I want to maintain due institutional courtesy and not qualify statements that lack sensitivity.” He explains it: “In the first place towards the residents of this municipality who suffer from water cuts derived from mismanagement that is the responsibility of the minister herself and not, as he says, of this corporation.” Gil also made reference “to the prison officials, the prisoners and their families.”
Gil recalls that “the prison was implemented without any consensus 34 years ago, imposed in one of the best potential areas for cultivation in El Rosario.” He adds: “They forgot about her all this time and now it is how they pay the residents of El Rosario, disregarding everything and lacking sensitivity ». He emphasizes: “Or is it that they don’t see that my neighbors are going to fetch water with jugs and shower at a municipal sports center?”
The mayor clarifies: “There is a solution to improve the water supply in Tenerife II, but they do not want to accept the abandonment.” Gil sentenced: “The Government Delegate –Anselmo Pestana– is in hiding and the ministers who visit us suffer from self-interested amnesia about the files they approve in the Council, where this problem should be.”
Gil reminds Ribera that the planning instrument that must undertake the work to expand the reservoir and channeling “It is the Plan for the Amortization and Creation of Penitentiary Centers (PACEP), whose review was extended until 2028 in 2022 in the Council of Ministers where you sit every Thursday.”
Escolástico Gil chaired a meeting of the Municipal Emergency Plan (PEMU) yesterday. The forecast was that throughout the afternoon-night 75% of the water supply would be restored. In addition, the drinking water supply will continue to be activated in La Esperanza and Llano del Moro and the personal hygiene service in the Lomo Pelado pavilion. Likewise, the transfer of water to the prison in Cubas and through the municipal network will continue.
