The Minister of Ecological Transition and Energy of the Government of the Canary Islands, Mariano Hernández Zapata (PP), assessed this Monday the Supreme Court ruling about the so-called Arid case in Güímar (Tenerife) and has announced that his department will work in coordination with the Island Council to study how to recover that area. This ruling dismisses the appeals of those convicted and ratifies the compensation of 185 million euros that they must pay for the destruction caused in the valley.
Hernández Zapata has advanced that one of the alternatives on the table would be hydropumping. “A possible solution that has been talked about and that has been put on the table by an association, Fepeco (Provincial Federation of Construction Entities of Santa Cruz de Tenerife) could be hydropumping, in such a way that, taking advantage of the “In the upper part, with the extractions from the lower part, two reservoirs could be built in the area and, with the height, cause a waterfall that could generate electricity with turbines,” he explained.
Precisely one of those convicted in this case, Antonio Plasencia (in prison for the Las Teresitas case), presided over Fepeco until his resignation in 2015.
The counselor thanked “the work” of the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court for the speed with which it responded after the cassation hearing on this matter was held on November 12.
In the sentence, which was announced this Monday by the newspaper The day, the Supreme Court dismisses the appeals presented and ratifies the decision of the Court of Santa Cruz de Tenerife to sentence several businessmen to pay 185 million euros for the illegal extraction of aggregates in ravines in the Tenerife municipality of Güímar. Those responsible for the compensation are the businessmen Antonio Plasencia, José Enrique Morales and Pedro Sicilia, sentenced in January 2016 to restore the area damaged by crimes against natural resources and the environment. However, in January 2021, the Provincial Court replaced this obligation to restore the natural environment with compensation after declaring that it was impossible to restore the ecological balance in the area in a resolution that is now ratified by the Supreme Court.
With this resolution of the High Court, the sentence becomes final, so the Canary Islands Government will be able, from this moment on, to “sit down to work, to look for alternatives for the recovery” of this area, Hernández Zapata has indicated.
Although he has talked about the hydropumping solution, the counselor has admitted that there are “several alternatives on the table”, and that the key to deciding what to do will come from “sitting down with the Tenerife Cabildo and working in a coordinated manner.”
Although the regional government is the one that has the powers in this matter, Zapata explained, it seeks to do “something jointly” with the island corporation so that both administrations are “comfortable” when making decisions.
A water park
One of the solutions that was considered years ago for the area was a water park, a project that was defended by the then mayor of Güímar, from the PP (same party as the current councilor), Carmen Luisa Castro (today in the opposition). Mimiland Water World, as the idea was called, sought to locate swimming pools, a shopping center and a hotel in the holes caused by uncontrolled land extraction. “We are waiting for the land to be changed (its protection) so that the park can be built,” said the mayor in May 2015. The businessman after the projectwith an estimated cost of 94 million euros, turned out to be insolvent.
