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25-02-2022, 11:50 PM
An article from Radio Sintonia:
(link to audio discussion, in Spanish)
This Friday, in a new installment of La Rosa de Fuerteventura, we talk about one of the most important problems as far as the majorero primary sector is concerned, the use of water. However, we focus this time on the works made in recent history for this purpose.
We remember the construction of the canal of "La Esperanza", which is considered the largest engineering work in Fuerteventura at the end of the nineteenth century. With the singular name of "La Esperanza" was called a canal of 14 kilometers that departed from the town of Tesjuate to the old Port of Cabras, today Puerto del Rosario, capital of Fuerteventura and that promoted the "Economic Society La Esperanza" in 1898. The company was constituted, among other families, by the Fernández Castañeyra and the purpose of the company was to bring water to the population in the face of the scarcity in the area.
We are joined on the radio by the history teacher, Carmelo Torres, to put on the table and remember how the old generations managed to take advantage of or move water. The professor assures that we have had to fight against the elements, since our island has a very fertile land, "but it was always denied the liquid element". In addition, according to the professor, the channel of "La Esperanza" was a point and apart, a milestone, a symbol that deserves to be preserved.
The construction of different methods of use and transfer of water favored the development of the capital, while agriculture could benefit.
Although an essential element for life was already privatized at that time, the accessibility in which they worked gave the possibility to farmers to take risks in the production of a fruit differentiated from the rest and that had a quick exit. Carmelo Torres knows the existence of more than 60 cisterns of which we do not know the state of conservation, as well as pools and gavias. In addition, although he maintains that he does not know the data exactly, he estimates that "there may be several thousand wells in Fuerteventura".
It also highlights other methods such as dams, sandblasting or the use of the picon, reforestation with more than half a million trees, water tanks such as La Charca and channels "that cross higher than what is now Majada Marcial". However, he regrets that what was being pursued was the business and not the actual supply of the local population.
Little by little, agriculture ceased to be the essential economic activity of Fuerteventura to make way for the tourism sector. And it is that nature had deprived Fuerteventura of the most essential, so there is no doubt that this scarcity of water has been marking the landscape of the island throughout history.
(link to audio discussion, in Spanish)
This Friday, in a new installment of La Rosa de Fuerteventura, we talk about one of the most important problems as far as the majorero primary sector is concerned, the use of water. However, we focus this time on the works made in recent history for this purpose.
We remember the construction of the canal of "La Esperanza", which is considered the largest engineering work in Fuerteventura at the end of the nineteenth century. With the singular name of "La Esperanza" was called a canal of 14 kilometers that departed from the town of Tesjuate to the old Port of Cabras, today Puerto del Rosario, capital of Fuerteventura and that promoted the "Economic Society La Esperanza" in 1898. The company was constituted, among other families, by the Fernández Castañeyra and the purpose of the company was to bring water to the population in the face of the scarcity in the area.
We are joined on the radio by the history teacher, Carmelo Torres, to put on the table and remember how the old generations managed to take advantage of or move water. The professor assures that we have had to fight against the elements, since our island has a very fertile land, "but it was always denied the liquid element". In addition, according to the professor, the channel of "La Esperanza" was a point and apart, a milestone, a symbol that deserves to be preserved.
The construction of different methods of use and transfer of water favored the development of the capital, while agriculture could benefit.
Although an essential element for life was already privatized at that time, the accessibility in which they worked gave the possibility to farmers to take risks in the production of a fruit differentiated from the rest and that had a quick exit. Carmelo Torres knows the existence of more than 60 cisterns of which we do not know the state of conservation, as well as pools and gavias. In addition, although he maintains that he does not know the data exactly, he estimates that "there may be several thousand wells in Fuerteventura".
It also highlights other methods such as dams, sandblasting or the use of the picon, reforestation with more than half a million trees, water tanks such as La Charca and channels "that cross higher than what is now Majada Marcial". However, he regrets that what was being pursued was the business and not the actual supply of the local population.
Little by little, agriculture ceased to be the essential economic activity of Fuerteventura to make way for the tourism sector. And it is that nature had deprived Fuerteventura of the most essential, so there is no doubt that this scarcity of water has been marking the landscape of the island throughout history.
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