The Government of the Canary Islands and the Council of Tenerife have agreed this Friday to commission a study on the viability of the port of Fonsalía, on the southwest coast of the island, as well as alternatives to that project, which has a wide social rejection in the islands, to make a final decision on the matter.
A fourth commercial port in Tenerife threatens Europe’s only whale sanctuary
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The Minister of Public Works, Sebastián Franquis, and the president of the Insular Corporation, Pedro Martín, have explained that the environmental impact statement It is expired since December 2018 and that now a new one needs to be made to see what the viability of the construction of that infrastructure is. “That its viability be evaluated, because there is no particular interest in having it built in one place or another,” Martín explained.
The Tenerife president added that when the first study was carried out, the port of Granadilla did not exist, so now it could be considered as an alternative. “At that time it was considered that Fonsalía was the ideal place, but now that could have changed,” he added.
On the other hand, Martín has insisted that he will not be the one to “impose” the port, because “he could be wrong”, but that it has to be the balance of all the analyzed variants and then choose the best one. Therefore, he said, to make a decision, he will wait for the result of the study on possible alternatives, such as improving the port of Los Cristianos as well as its connection on land, or using the port of Granadilla to assume part of the maritime transport with the green islands (La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro), and even the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. In addition, another possible alternative is “to do nothing”, explained Martín.
The decision, he insisted, “has to be considered, analyzed and agreed upon”, but “it has to be taken”, because, he said, “we have been debating this issue for 30 years.”
The report, whose cost is not yet determined, will begin in the coming weeks and, based on its conclusions, a position will be established regarding the port. The document, which could be completed by mid-2022, will evaluate four aspects: socioeconomic, environmental, connectivity and territorial point of view.
Franquis stressed that since the first project was commissioned in 2007, “things have changed” and there is now a strong commitment to sustainability. For this reason, he has said that all public investments have to adapt to this new reality and demands of society.
🔴 #DIRECT: Statement of the Government of the Canary Islands and the Cabildo in relation to the maritime connections of Tenerife with La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro.
Participating resident of the Cabildo, @PedroMartin, and the counselor of @Works_GobCan, @chanofranquis. https://t.co/FZAkLtmvPO
– Cabildo de Tenerife (@CabildoTenerife) September 10, 2021
Whale sanctuary
The Fonsalía port project locates this infrastructure on a 22-kilometer strip of coastline surrounded by a Special Conservation Area (ZEC) due to its environmental wealth. These waters, from the tip of Teno to the tip of Rasca, are a place of passage and habitat for numerous marine species, many of them protected, and a great variety of cetaceans, among which a resident population of pilot whales stands out. of about 200 copies. In fact, the waters that would surround the possible port are part of one of the three Whale Sanctuaries in the world, and the only one in the European Union, declared this way by the World Cetacean Alliance in January this year.
