The Insular Water Consortium has regained control of the integral water cycle in Lanzarote, breaking the contract with Canal de Isabel II after thirteen years. The decision, supported by CC and PP, comes in the middle of summer and generates a legal conflict.
Lanzarote's water no longer depends on Madrid. The Insular Water Consortium, formed by the Cabildo and the seven municipalities of the island, has executed a lightning maneuver to regain control of the integral water cycle, which has been managed by the Madrid public company Canal de Isabel II through its subsidiary Canal Gestión Lanzarote since 2012. The operation, completed in less than twenty-four hours, leaves the supply in limbo just as summer boosts tourist consumption and the demand for infrastructures like La Mareta, the official residence of the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez.
An express break with thirteen years of history
The decision by the Consortium, made unanimously by all island administrations —with the Cabildo governed by Coalición Canaria and the PP— has precipitated the termination of the contract that linked the island to Canal de Isabel II since 2012. That year, the Madrid company came to rescue a previous public operator in bankruptcy. Thirteen years later, the agreement between nationalists and populars has reversed the model.
The Canary Islands subsidiary of Canal de Isabel II, Canal Gestión Lanzarote, has responded with a legal offensive. Its legal services denounce a flagrant violation of legal security and claim that the speed of the process has prevented an orderly transition. The company argues that the takeover has been carried out without guarantees, leaving the ownership of essential assets, from databases to employment contracts, in question.
“The island's action is incomprehensibly immediate and disproportionate,” warn sources from the company, which has already announced legal actions through administrative and contentious-administrative channels, including a request for precautionary measures to suspend the recovery of the service.
The spectre of La Mareta and Sánchez's water
The conflict has a political background that transcends technicalities. La Mareta, Pedro Sánchez's summer residence in Lanzarote, consumes water that was previously billed by Canal Gestión. In previous years, supply cuts in residential homes contrasted with guaranteed supply to tourist areas and state infrastructures. This summer, Sánchez cannot leave Spain due to the withdrawal of his wife Begoña Gómez's passport, ordered by a judge, which suggests a greater presence on the island.
Former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero also has a home in Famara, one of the most dangerous beaches in Lanzarote. The coincidence of both socialist leaders on the island during a summer of water tension adds another ingredient to the dispute.
The Cabildo has downplayed the complaints from the Madrid company. “It is necessary to regain public control of a vital resource that cannot depend on the interests of an external concessionaire,” defend island sources. However, the operational reality is complex: the takeover has left an informational void regarding the actual state of inventories and the technical configuration of the computer systems.
A summer under tension and with increased security
As water becomes the epicentre of the dispute, the Government Delegation has presented 22 new Guardia Civil agents who have joined to reinforce security on the island. The coincidence of both events is not casual: Lanzarote's summer is expected to be heated, both in terms of climate and political tension.
For Lanzarote residents, the recovery of public service represents hope that water cuts in homes —which have caused deep discontent in previous years— will cease to be commonplace. But it also brings uncertainty: the outgoing company has dissociated itself from any incidents that may occur from now on, and the legal conflict could prolong instability for weeks.
The Insular Water Consortium will now have to prove that it is prepared to manage such a sensitive resource as water on an island with tourist pressure and high-level political demands. Meanwhile, the courts will decide whether the break was legal or an infringement on the concessionaire.
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