la palma volcano tajogaite reconstruction demands

La Palma volcano group demands reconstruction overhaul

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La Palma group marks fifth anniversary of Tajogaite eruption with demands for change

On the fifth anniversary of the volcanic eruption, the association Tierra Bonita lamented this Saturday that no institutional commemoration has been organised, arguing that the biggest volcanic disaster in Europe over the past century deserves a permanent place in the collective memory.

In a statement, the group also called for a profound change in how the reconstruction of the affected area of the Valle de Aridane is managed, and for an end to improvisation, the lack of planning and citizen participation, and the lack of transparency in the management of public resources allocated to La Palma.

Calls to convene the reconstruction council

To drive a change in the management model, Tierra Bonita has requested the immediate convening of the Sectoral Council for the Economic and Social Reconstruction of La Palma, a body formally created by the island council (Cabildo) in 2023 and consolidated in legislation, but which has reportedly never actually met.

The group points out that its composition is designed to include seven representatives of associations of people affected by the volcano and of neighbourhood groups from the affected area.

Tierra Bonita has also advocated ending the yellow alert — the first level of volcanic risk warning — and replacing the current exceptional emergency legal regime with a stable figure known as a Permanent Reconstruction Zone, backed by the Volcano Law.

It has further proposed setting up a single public consortium to coordinate the actions of the different administrations, as well as publishing the minutes and recordings of the scientific and political meetings of the Canary Islands Volcanic Emergency Plan (PEVOLCA) held before the eruption.

Demands for transparency over aid and compensation

Among its demands is also the publication of the criteria and protocols used to assess properties, grant compensation and select the beneficiaries of public aid, along with publishing the list of beneficiaries.

“Anonymity, even if it has been cunningly shielded in the Volcano Law through a last-minute parliamentary amendment introduced in the chamber, can not only run counter to state legislation but serves only to increase suspicion and mistrust over the use of public funds already distributed,” they warn.

The group also asks for a review of the situation of those who, because they are not property owners, hold usufructuary status or find themselves in particular family circumstances, have not received an adequate response under the regulations approved to help those affected. It adds that a comprehensive territorial plan agreed with society is also needed.

A museum for the memory of the Tajogaite volcano

The association also proposes creating a Museum of the Memory of the Tajogaite Volcano, conceived as a space dedicated to the people affected and to preserving the material, sentimental and social heritage buried by the lava flows.

Tierra Bonita recalls that the Sectoral Council for the Economic and Social Reconstruction of La Palma was supposed to become the main space for participation by those affected by the disaster in decisions about the future of their territory. Yet the fact that it has never met, they argue, shows the barely participatory model still followed by public administrations.

In this context, they consider it equally necessary to establish a single public consortium that prevents the dispersal of responsibilities between the different ministries of the Canary Islands government, the Cabildo de La Palma, the town councils and public companies such as Gesplan.

As an international reference on these points, Tierra Bonita has cited the reconstruction of Christchurch in New Zealand, a city devastated by an earthquake in 2011, where a specific authority was created and citizen participation platforms, cultural projects and integrated urban measures were promoted.

The proposal to create the Museum of the Memory of the Tajogaite Volcano would take inspiration from Eldheimar, the museum built on the Icelandic island of Heimaey after the 1973 eruption of Eldfell.

The association argues that this exhibition space should not be solely a centre dedicated to geological information or a tourist attraction, but also a space devoted to the eruption’s impact on the population and to recovering the identity of the disappeared neighbourhoods.

The project could bring together objects recovered from the eruption zone, photographs, testimonies, documents, agricultural and craft tools, and other items linked to everyday life before the disaster.

It also suggests incorporating a virtual, interactive and immersive recreation that would allow visitors to walk through the old streets and landscapes of El Paraíso, Calle Alcalá, Todoque and other agricultural settlements buried by the lava flows.

Pressure over PEVOLCA’s pre-eruption meetings

The association has reiterated its demand for access to the minutes and recordings of the meetings of PEVOLCA’s scientific and steering committees held in the days and hours before the eruption began.

It insists this documentation is indispensable to establish what information scientific, technical and political officials had before the disaster; what scenarios were considered; why a preventive evacuation of the neighbourhoods closest to Cabeza de Vaca was not ordered despite the imminence of the eruption, and why the population was not told that the highest-risk area had shifted towards the place where the eruptive process eventually began.

According to the association, the scientific committee had that information but it was not passed on to residents of El Paraíso, Calle Alcalá, El Pastelero, Camino Campitos and Todoque, the settlements closest to the first eruptive vents and the first to be destroyed by the lava.

For this La Palma group, keeping the minutes and recordings hidden has helped fuel the suspicions and anger of those affected, and does not guarantee to the public that lessons have been learned from the mistakes in order to improve response protocols for future volcanic crises.

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