La Laguna destina 1,1 millones de euros a conectar pozos negros de la Comarca Nordeste

The City Council of La Laguna, through the mixed company Teidagua, will make available to the public this week a call for indirect aid to increase the number of homes in the Nordeste region connected to the municipal sewer system. This initiative, funded through a grant from the Cabildo de Tenerife, will have a total budget of 1,161,810.35 euros and a two-month application deadline. The guidelines for this assistance will be published on the website

The Mayor of La Laguna, Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, emphasized that «this proposal is part of a global strategy of the City Council to increase the collection and use of wastewater, especially in areas like Valle de Guerra or Guamasa, where there are still many properties without proper connections, posing a health risk and an unnecessary loss of vital water resources.»

«In this way, we not only contribute to avoiding any environmental damage from possible leaks into the ground, but we also obtain quality water that can be reused for agricultural irrigation or for parks and gardens in La Laguna,» added the mayor, who noted that this financial assistance has been a longstanding demand of many residents who wanted to carry out these actions but did not have the financial means to do so.

On the other hand, the councilor for Works, Infrastructure, and Water of the local Corporation, Ángel Chinea, emphasized that «we are in a water emergency context, and all our efforts must focus on utilizing any resource available to us.» The municipal official also clarified that the maximum amount of aid will be 5,000 euros per applicant.

Likewise, the councilor informed that the actions that will be eligible for this aid include, among others, technical inspection of facilities, emptying and cleaning of septic tanks, trench openings, wall drilling, demolition and replacement of pavement, installation of new pipes, construction of pumping stations, connection to the supply network, or removal, transfer, and management of waste derived from these interventions.

Requirements and scope of action

Beneficiaries of this aid must have a valid contract for the property, for domestic use, with the municipal Water Supply Service of La Laguna. Likewise, these infrastructures must be located less than one hundred meters away from the public sewer and excreta evacuation network to which they must connect.

Finally, the property and the land where the new connection to the network will run cannot be affected by any circumstance that prevents the necessary licenses for the execution of the work.

If the applicant does not own the property, the aid application must be accompanied by an express authorization from the owner to proceed with the connection and carry out the necessary work. Likewise, in the case of buildings, the Community of Owners of the same may act as the applicant, provided that it is duly constituted and that the intended connection is common to the entire building.

In agreement with the Insular Water Council of Tenerife, it has been determined that the scope of action will mainly focus on the Nordeste region of the municipality, where nuclei with a low percentage of connectivity to the network stand out, such as El Ramal in Tejina, where 251 wells have been inventoried; El Calvario in Valle de Guerra, which has 204 septic tanks; the Suertes Largas nucleus in the Guamasa area, with 122 septic tanks; or Vernetta in the Bajamar-Punta del Hidalgo conurbation, with 76 septic tanks. Based on this data, it is estimated that the potential water collection flow in these nuclei would amount to over 80,000 cubic meters per year.