SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Feb. 24 (EUROPE PRESS) –
Today, Thursday, the port of Santa Cruz de La Palma welcomed the arrival of the first five modular homes -container type- of the batch of 85 houses that will begin to be installed in the municipality of Los Llanos de Aridane in about two weeks in order to alleviate the housing emergency generated by the volcanic eruption.
The Minister of Public Works, Transport and Housing of the Government of the Canary Islands, Sebastián Franquis, indicated that the urbanization works are being completed, which are the most complex because sanitation, electricity and water have to be installed, and he advanced that in fifteen days it will be possible to start the installation of these houses on the ground.
Sebastián Franquis pointed out that work is being done in the three most affected municipalities, especially in Los Llanos, because that is where the largest number of affected people are concentrated, to continue increasing the number of homes available for emergency housing.
“For this reason, and although it is not easy to find finished and prepared homes in those three municipalities, we are already negotiating the purchase of another important number of semi-finished houses in Los Llanos, to continue meeting the demands of the affected families and with whom we We promised to find a housing solution for them as soon as the volcano exploded,” Franquis said.
The houses, acquired by the Canarian Housing Institute (ICAVI), at the request of the Los Llanos de Aridane City Council, will be made up of two containers that are joined laterally to form a 60 square meter module with three bedrooms, two furnished bathrooms and a equipped kitchen-living room.
These houses have been acquired from a specialized company, based in Galicia, which promised to comply with the order in the shortest possible time. In fact, just a month after signing the contract with this company, the first units are already in La Palma, to which a dozen more will be added, surely, next week. The investment made by the Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Housing to acquire these 85 modular homes is 5.3 million euros.
Upon arrival on the island, after ten days of sailing from Galicia, the installation teams will be in charge of undertaking the assembly work on a plot that is being completed in the municipality of Los Llanos de Aridane. The objective of this team of installers is that, if conditions allow it, a house can be completely installed in each working day.
The total of the 85 prefabricated container-type homes will be installed on a site close to the one that is already being used for the installation of the first five wooden houses, in the same municipality, homes that will be delivered shortly to their successful bidders once the works are completed. coming weeks the necessary works to connect water, electricity and sanitation.
The councilor highlighted that the Government of the Canary Islands continues to provide responses to those affected by the volcano, with the premise of providing a housing response to those who lost their first home, for which several housing packages have already been purchased, both built as prefabricated, which are already being delivered to the victims.
“This week we hope to award to the families all the houses that we have bought and that we had available until this last day, to start handing over the keys in the next few days,” Franquis said, while stressing that “we have had difficulties in handing over homes that were not in these three municipalities, because the affected families, logically, want to live in the municipality where they are registered and that is an added difficulty when it comes to finding a home for this family”.
The counselor also assured that the Ministry has another way in place, which is rent so that families who are already paying it do not assume this cost by themselves.
