Yaiza mayor calls for urgent upgrades to the Playa Blanca wastewater treatment plant

Yaiza mayor Óscar Noda has called for the urgent tendering of the Playa Blanca Wastewater Treatment Plant expansion, along with guarantees of multi-year funding, as the facility faces flows and organic loads more than double its design capacity.

The mayor made the request during a meeting with Canarian Government ministers on Monday.

The meeting focused on the project, with Noda once again calling for not only “an urgent call for bids but also guarantees of multi-year funding.”

For at least the past two fiscal years, the budget has allocated one million euros for the project. However, its total cost exceeds ten million euros.

“The council issued the urban planning report and completed the necessary land transfer for the water treatment plant upgrades. Now that we have cleared most of the bureaucratic hurdles, what we are asking the Canarian Government and the Lanzarote Water Consortium to advance with the project,” said the mayor.

Following the meeting, Noda toured the wastewater treatment plant alongside the Deputy Minister of Water.

The mayor said Canarian Government president Fernando Clavijo and regional minister of Territorial Policy, Territorial Cohesion, and Water Manuel Miranda “are aware of the serious water supply problems facing Yaiza and Lanzarote, as well as the shortcomings in the wastewater infrastructure.”

“I have personally informed both of them that the Playa Blanca Wastewater Treatment Plant receives more than double the flow and organic load for which it is designed. Deputy Minister Marcos Lorenzo was able to verify on site the plant’s obsolescence.”

The mayor raised separate concerns over discharges and foul odours from the Intermediate Wastewater Pumping Station next to the Marcastell residential development.

“Ideally, it should be relocated to another site, but we are already advocating for its modernisation because residents in the area are literally overwhelmed by the odours.”