The president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Rosa Dávila (CC), confirmed on Tuesday morning during an interview on Radio Club Tenerife (Cadena Ser) that no company submitted a proposal for the works involving the submarine emissary at the port of La Cruz. The deadline for the bidding concluded last Monday and the project has an estimated cost of 2.7 million euros with a completion timeframe of 16 months. As reported on Monday by Canarias Ahora, and according to various specialised firms, it appeared that the bidding had been abandoned; however, officials at the town hall had refrained from addressing inquiries from this outlet since the previous Friday. Following a report from Canarias Ahora that highlighted the Absolute Secrecy of the Insular Government, Dávila confirmed the suspicions during the SER broadcast, although she emphasised that unlike the situation with the new emissary of Gáldar, which also did not secure bidders on the 1st of this month, this was because the prices from 2022 had been held steady without any updates, which meant that the companies executing work in the Canary Islands do not possess the classification required by current legislation.
Regardless of this constraint, the Minister of Natural Resources, Blanca Pérez (CC), also expressed during the morning on another local station, Radio People, based in Puerto de la Cruz, that the tender documentation will be submitted for bidding again next week, with the expectation that these works can be awarded in the first half of May.
Nonetheless, while there might be some confusion in yesterday’s report regarding the actions aimed at eliminating discharges that have discouraged swimming in Playa Turismo, which the council indicated had never been officially addressed. Today, the same station reiterated that measurements already provide data which will facilitate that change, although they still need to wait for all parameters and mandatory steps to be satisfied.
Meanwhile, the PSOE in the Cabildo de Tenerife issued a statement this afternoon Addressing the criticisms surrounding the situation, while sources consulted by Canarias Ahora are not entirely sure that the reason for the bidding being abandoned is solely due to the classification of the companies. It is worth noting that work on the Emisario de Adeje-Arona, located in the southern part of the island, has been ongoing since May 2024, with a budget of 4.1 million euros and is aimed at managing the discharge of saline waters in Barranco de Troy.
For the Socialists within the Insular Administration, the CC and PP government must adequately explain why the bidding for the Punta Brava emissary has been left abandoned, attributing this to “an error in the classification requirements expected from bidding companies”. Furthermore, the PSOE highlights that this intervention was presented as the “definitive solution” to the spillage issue affecting swimming at Playa Jardín since last July.
“Lack of unacceptable rigour”
The socialist spokesperson in the Cabildo, Aarón Afonso, criticises that “this failure highlights an unacceptable lack of rigour in an urgent and sensitive action for the northern part of the island” and condemns that “the government has concealed this information for days, inducing uncertainty and distrust among the public.” He further questions the new announcement about the impending tender, asking if it is “a genuine announcement or merely a tactic to buy time, as there is no available documentation or official timelines, but just words.” He also suspects that the project costs will not be revised, as they date back to 2022,
which could jeopardise the success of the process once more if it fails to adjust to the actual market conditions. We must not permit the same mistake to recur with such a delicate project.”
In this context, he notes that “it was documented in 2022, it received definitive approval in July 2023, yet was not tendered until March 2025, by emergency, but with an administrative blunder that has rendered the entire procedure invalid. Urgency cannot be managed with this level of carelessness,” states AFONSO. “It took 20 months and 15 days to issue the tender for the work following the final endorsement of the project on July 10, 2023, and now the competition was evident. This, coupled with the significant delay, was conducted swiftly and without due diligence, likely in response to the mass protest that took place in Puerto de la Cruz on March 23, and prior to the regular plenary session of the Cabildo on March 28 where the councillor was to provide explanations regarding Playa Jardín.”
Tenerife’s PSOE also critiques the Cabildo for “failing to inform about the status of the file to tender the expansion works of the wastewater treatment plant in the La Orotava Valley, an essential infrastructure to address the issues of spills in the region. The current Government Group of the Cabildo has allowed 22 months to pass since the final approval of the extension project, which occurred on June 18, 2023.”
Afonso further emphasises, “that the current governing group pledged a swift and effective response, even claiming that the emissary would be repaired within 48 hours and that Garden Beach would be accessible this summer. Today, there is no emissary, no beach, and no answers,” he points out. He demands that the Cabildo “publicly clarify why the contest has declared deserted, elucidate when this was known, ensure that accountability is established for the processing failures, and that the tender is immediately relaunched, complete with technical, legal, and economic assurances.”
