The General Directorate of Public Health of the Government of the Canary Islands secures to THE DAY who was aware of the anomalous values due to excess radioactivity in the drinking water of San Juan de la Rambla «in March, when the analytical parameters were published in the National Information System for Drinking Water (Sinac)». Public Health affirms that from that moment on he reminded the ramblero town hall what “should I do” radionuclide analysis (unstable elements that emit radiation) that allow a health assessment to be made for action in the presence of radioactive substances in drinking water”. Some studies that as stated this week by the mayor of Aguas Township, Juan Ramos (CC)have not yet been finished «because samples must be sent to the peninsula and wait for the results.
Public health contradicts to the Ramblero Town Hallwhich in a statement through the municipal website states that «Royal Decree 3/2023 It substantially reduced the maximum and minimum values recommended for this element, which is why it now requires counter-analytics to delimit the galleries that supply us with water with more or less radioactivity and to be able to counteract the values that reach the deposits”. This department of Government of the Canary Islands remarks that The obligation to carry out these complementary and more accurate analyzes is not new and recalls that “this action procedure had already been established in the legislation on water for human consumption since 2016with the transposition of Directive 2013/51/Euratom to the Spanish legal system».
Public Health maintains that we must wait for these results to determine the quality of the water and be able to establish or not restrictions on consumption
From Public health It is insisted that “after the publication in May of a new analysis (of April 17), which did not include the radionuclides to be carried out by the supply operator, in this case the City Council of San Juan de la Ramblathis need has been reiterated by Public Health and we are currently awaiting the results».
The regional department stresses that “radionuclide parameters are essential to assess whether the water is suitable for consumption or not. In our territory it is frequent that the values of total alpha activity are altered by the volcanic origin of the islands, and that later with the determination of the values of the specific radionuclides it is not confirmed. Therefore, we must wait for these results to determine the quality of the water”, and to be able to establish or not restrictions on consumption.
Criticism from sanitary inspectors
The Association of Public Health Inspectors of the Canary Islands denounces the precariousness with which they are working in recent times and points out that “the situation is so alarming, that there are municipalities where controls on the disinfection of drinking water have not been carried out, and the corresponding sampling for more than a year, where health alerts must be managed by telephone, since we do not have the means to travel, or even where the samples taken for analysis must be transported by bus or on foot. As a sample button, remember that we have in some municipality of the Canary Islands, that is known, water with high levels of radioactivity that do not make it suitable for human consumption.
