Neighborhood associations, groups of the elderly or a participation table made up of merchants are just some of the groups with which LIFE Garachico technicians will work this week. This European project, belonging to the LIFE program and led by the Vice-Ministry of Ecological Transition of the Government of the Canary Islands, is developing a novel methodology in the municipality of Garachico which, given the impossibility of reversing the effects of climate change on the coastal towns of Macaronesia , proposes its adaptation to phenomena such as floods through the implementation of different measures that protect the population.
Precisely, one of the characteristics of LIFE Garachico is its interest in citizen participation, involving residents in workflows, which is why this week, within the framework of the so-called A4 action, a series of meetings have been scheduled to share some of the results obtained so far, which are complemented by a walk where the usefulness of the maps created by GRAFCAN will be validated with the neighbors. This involvement is so important for the project because, far from being an isolated action, in other consultation processes it has been discovered that 99.1% of foreigners are aware of this problem, 70.3% express concern about the impact of coastal phenomena and 53.4% regrets that their work activity could be affected by the sea of cam, asserting that, on some occasion, "it caught them unexpectedly and they did not have time to store material such as chairs, tables or umbrellas or activate the relevant protection measures.
Others are added to this testimony, such as that of a businessman who points out that "when there is a tidal wave, the business is usually partially submerged", or reflections where it is ensured that "with all the information and technologies that exist today, it is possible to foresee This type of event is better. It is precisely in this last aspect that LIFE Garachico has the greatest impact, since one of its objectives is to implement an early warning system for extreme coastal events on a local scale that allows them to be predicted sufficiently in advance to activate the emergency protocols aimed at minimize damage to people, property and coastal activities. This early warning system will be implemented in Garachico (pilot town) and will be replicated in Puerto de la Cruz, in Tenerife, and in Praia de Vitória, in Azores.