Thursday, May 15, 2008

The South – East County of Gran Canaria:

A Benchmark in Sustainable Development

By: Josefa Caballero Hernandez, The County of Sur Este de Gran Canaria in Spain and member of ICLEI

With a looming energy crisis, inadequate land based water resources, a growing population, an expanding tourism and an economy dependent on agricultural export, the County of the South East of Gran Canaria did not seem to have many developmental alternatives three decades ago. Still, through coordinated efforts, skilled planning, courageous decisions, and the integration of environmental concerns, the county has emerged as a leading community in planning and is on its way to becoming a self sufficient community in terms of water, energy and agriculture – not a small accomplishment for this wind affected insular community in the Atlantic Ocean somewhere between Africa and Europe.

A gloomy perspective led to cooperation in sustainability

Some thirty years ago the County of the South East of Gran Canaria, comprising the municipalities of Agüimes, Ingenio and Santa Lucia de Tirajana, was the least developed part of the Island of Gran Canaria. Known as the “triangle of poverty”, its population was small and with low family incomes, suffering from large deficits in infrastructure and lack of usable water. Its only resources seemed to be a climate of strong winds and long hours of sunshine.

During the 1960s, the County experienced a pronounced increase in population, especially on the coastal areas, due to the expansion of export agriculture and the settlement of a workforce for the tourist industry developing in the southern part of the island.

This population increase threatened to further deplete the resources and as the situation grew critical, the three municipalities of the County decided to join forces. In 1990 they created the Inter-Municipal Community of the South East of Gran Canaria and embarked on developing a strategy and a plan for sustainable development and human well being.

This resulted in building a sea water desalination plant with a network of drinking water supplies. Simultaneously, they opted for re-using waste water and therefore built a collection network and a treatment plant. Today one hundred per cent of the wastewater is treated, and half of this has drinkable water quality. A series of common services for the municipalities, selective waste collection, lighting maintenance, street cleaning, security and customer department, were also developed.

Large wind farms have been built and thanks to the strong and constant winds over the broad coastal plains, they generate enough electricity to meet 100% of the energy demand for desalination and wastewater treatment and almost 40% of other local electricity demand. The development of wind farms has reduced a potential emission of some 90 000 tonnes of CO2 per year.

The county also drafted common by-laws regulating telecommunications, agricultural waste, spills and the use of renewable energies in new buildings.

Surplus of energy and zero emissions!

Anticipating the worst, but with confidence in local actions, the County of the South East of Gran Canaria has started to define and implement a complex Sustainable Development Plan for the future.

With a possible future energy crisis and with an observing and keen eye on climate change and possibly ensuing social tensions, the Plan for Sustainable Development not only guarantees present and future development, but also provides development opportunities to other communities.

Maximum energy independence for the whole district is on its way to being implemented, by means of massive electric energy savings and maximum promotion of renewable energies. This would provide more than five times the County’s energy demand and make a significant contribution to meeting Gran Canaria’s energy self-sufficiency. There are plans to install over 600 MW of solar and photo-voltaic systems with an energy output of over 2.200,000 MWh. Carbon-based electricity plants would have caused the emission of 1,350,000 tonnes of CO2 and the consumption of over 500,000 tonnes of fuel. The energy produced will be used for the entire desalinated and treated water production, and will cover the demands arising from the hi-tech agriculture. Surplus energy production will also be used to fuel electric vehicles.