The PSOE from Tenerife demands from the president of the Cabildo, Rosa Dávila,
“measures against the drought after three months without a single initiative for the countryside and with the reservoirs at an all-time low”. The president of the Insular Socialist Group, Pedro Martín, recalls the proposals made in February such as “the installation of portable desalination plants in the most critical points”.
Martín reminds Dávila that the PSOE then stated that they would support the declaration of a water emergency, although they warned her that “it would excessively delay the adoption of urgent measures to alleviate the agricultural situation.” The Insular Socialist leader emphasizes that “the reservoirs have reached 40.7% of their capacity with an April that has been the warmest in history.” Pedro Martín indicates that “we accompanied the declaration with a list of works and also pointed out the budget items from which the money could be allocated to carry them out.” However, he insists, “Rosa Dávila has done as always: announcements without taking actions.” He concludes: “We hope that this week she will finally decide to declare the emergency.”
The critical state of the reservoirs, according to Martín, “brings forward the critical period for the agricultural sector to spring, which in previous years occurred in late summer.” He stresses that “it does not seem like we will have rain and no measures are being taken.”
Pedro Martín emphasizes that “we invested 250 million Euros to obtain water for farmers, especially in reuse and desalination initiatives.” Therefore, he clarifies, “we need the Cabildo to make decisions as the infrastructures we started are being completed and put into operation.” He concludes: “We told the government group what they needed to do and yet, they have done nothing.”
On the other hand, socialist councillor Javier Parrilla explains that, thanks to the management carried out in the previous term when he was in charge of the Primary Sector, this year has seen 60% of the water supplied by Balten coming from regeneration or desalination, which means more than 12.6 million cubic meters of regenerated and desalinated water per year for irrigation.
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The emergency plan proposed by the PSOE would add around 40,000 cubic meters of irrigation water daily to the system, consisting of five actions and two plans to minimize losses, with an investment of at least 65 million Euros.
