Torres guarantees the 30,000 euros in compensation for lost housing and believes that the payments will be made over the next month
SANTA CRUZ DE LA PALMA, Jan. 11 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The President of the Government of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, has advanced this Wednesday that the decree-law for the reconstruction of La Palma after the volcanic eruption will be completed in February to be approved by the Governing Council and subsequently be sent to Parliament for its final validation.
In statements to journalists after a meeting with the president of the Cabildo, Mariano Hernández, and the mayors of El Paso, Tazacorte and Los Llanos de Aridane, he indicated that in this document, which will have contributions from those affected, they will establish the conditions to build homes in the Aridane Valley, while working on another parallel, through the Ministry of Agriculture, to organize agricultural land.
Torres has indicated that on January 20, in the afternoon, they will meet with those affected by the eruption and that same day, in the morning, there will be a new meeting of the joint reconstruction commission that will be chaired by the Minister of the Presidency, Felix Bolanos.
The president has highlighted that it is an “unpublished” decree that is added to the one already approved to build on rustic land and thanks to which some 150 licenses have already been processed, and he understands that it was better to do “separately” the one that regulates the activity agricultural.
He has also pointed out that the reconstruction of the island “has no pause” and for this reason he has assessed that 605 million public euros have been mobilized on the island and 264 homes have been delivered, with another 40, in Breña Baja, waiting for be delivered in February.
It has also indicated that 531 families receive rental assistance of a maximum of 594 euros.
11.5 million regional euros have also been distributed for goods in these provisional homes, always based on the data available to the Department of Social Rights, 88.9 million for the promotion of employment in 2022 or 107 for companies, self-employed and economic sectors affected, with 25 million for the primary sector, especially banana and fishing.
Torres has once again guaranteed the payment of the 30,000 euros committed by the Canary Islands Government as compensation for loss of housing — “there is no turning back” — and has attributed the delay to administrative difficulties and not to the proximity of the elections .
However, since the administrative process is finished, he is confident that the money will begin to be paid at the beginning of next month and stressed that those affected have had a written commitment to pay since September.
The Minister of Ecological Transition, José Antonio Valbuena, has valued the participatory process launched to prepare the decrees and the soil bag model was already “endorsed” by those affected when the draft was approved.
LAVAS TAKE AT LEAST A DECADE TO COOL
He has not hidden that there may be a “specific family that does not agree” with the final solution, but he has expressed satisfaction that “a very clear solution and response will be given” to the needs of the thousand affected, since a family that he lost 150 meters of housing, he will have another equal piece of land, with 150 square meters, to build his home.
“Another thing is that it is in the same place”, he indicated, since the cooling of the castings “limits” the construction capacity due to the temperature, fragility and emission of gases, since the castings of more than five meters, for example , they will cool down in about 10 years and the thickest ones will take several decades. “Not everyone can wait,” she has indicated.
The president of the Cabildo de La Palma, Mariano Hernández Zapata, highlighted the intensity of the meeting and the priority that is being given to the housing response.
Thus, he thanked the “rigor” of the Government in meeting the deadlines announced on the draft decree laws, to which will now be added the proposals for improvement of the Cabildo and the three town halls, so that the reconstruction is as complete as possible in the economic, industrial, agricultural, fishing, social and tourist fields.
He has also called for “consensus” among all the institutions and political formations to approve a “volcano law” so that, taking advantage of the “experience” of Cumbre Vieja, be “more prepared” for the future.
