New 4* hotel under construction set to open this year

Image taken from the hotel's website (see below)

 A new 4*star hotel is under construction in La Gomera's north-east near the island's capital San Sebastian de La Gomera in the townland of Lomo del Clavo. The site was occupied by a semi-finished holiday apartment development that had been deteriorating for years as an ugly, deserted construction site. This is now being redeveloped into an eco-friendly amenity with all mod cons.

The new hotel with its own organic farm, gardens and spa will have far in excess of 500 beds and should give permanent employment to about 100. It boasts conference and events rooms as well as nine restaurants and bars, including to quote the developers: '' Guro Show Bar - A creative and unforgettable programme awaits at the Guro! Get ready for the most original nightlife ''. 

'Bancal Hotel & Spa' intends to open at the end of this year and already presents its own impressive website in English, Spanish and German. 

The developers behind the venture, Corporacion Arca, introduce themselves with '' We are a corporate group that is not afraid to invest, with a collective conscience that includes you and everyone...''. They describe the facility under construction as follows:

 '' Located on a bluff (sic, yeah 'bluff' also means 'cliff' or 'promontory', but let's just hope that  their choice of word wasn't a Freudian slip - Ed.) overlooking the sea just 5 km from the capital, the Lomo del Clavo hotel project has been specially designed for people looking to enjoy the island of La Gomera, its nature, its history and its people.

Situated in an exceptional location with stunning views of Tenerife and its volcano, the Lomo del Clavo Hotel combines design, health and cuisine with the utmost respect for the environment and a sustainable philosophy that begins with the recovery of the landscape through the refurbishment of a space that was completely dilapidated. The use of clean energy, efficient waste management and involvement in the development of local economies are the basis of a philosophy that aims to reconcile tourism with the natural environment.

Facilities:

276 rooms with terrace

3 pools (2 of them infinity) and 2 children’s pools

Nudist area

5 bars

4 restaurants

Garden

Natural forest

Wellness area with gym, in/outdoor directed activities area, water, treatments and hair styling area

Club Store Event Rooms

Covered parking

Electric vehicle charging points

On-site ecological estate...''

The developers intend to plant acres of gardens and orchards, including a large proprietary organic farm, all irrigated with treated waste water from the hotel. 

That arid area could do with a bit of green again, which would indeed be better than the previous dereliction. San Sebastian de La Gomera is ''soon'' to get La Gomera's first and long overdue water desalination plant, so the hotel's water needs shouldn't take away from the town's scarce water supply. But more about water another time...

The Lomo de Clavo construction site near San Sebastian de La Gomera (Image: gomeraverde.es)

Greener Gomera

Part of the mountain village of Arure

After the recent rains springtime has arrived in La Gomera with an abundance of wildflowers and the whole island is much greener now. Some of the irrigation water reservoirs are now full again after the worrying prolonged drought and farmers have planted their crops.

Huge drinking water loss

Water tap in La Calera, Valle Gran Rey

In contrast to some of the other Canary Islands, La Gomera has an abundant supply of water. While the many open reservoirs are exclusively used for irrigation of the crops in summer, nearly all the drinking water and the domestic supply comes from wells and springs that produce water of excellent quality. Rainfall replenishes these, but the forest that covers the top of the island produces additional water when the mist and fog that are carried across the mountains by the trade winds condensate on the trees and percolate through the ground to feed the springs. 

However, the past winter brought very little rain to La Gomera and a recent survey revealed that half of La Gomera's drinking water available through the public water supply is lost and wasted because of an ageing and often faulty infrastructure. Measurements have shown that there are numerous leaks between source and households. The town of San Sebastian is now introducing 2.500 pressure reducing valves and diffusers in a measure which is expected to save 44.000 litres of precious water per day.

Other towns like Valle Gran Rey have also begun to replace old and leaking pipes, but it will take a long time until the full amount of water entering the distribution system will actually be contained within the grid and available to consumers. 

The water survey included water reservoirs and it was found that agriculture uses 82% of all available water, while about 18% is for human consumption, including the 6,3% used by the tourism sector. More than three quarters of all available water on the island of La Gomera comes from underground sources.

The island's capital San Sebastian is the only town so far which uses treated and purified waste water for the irrigation of its public parks and green areas, saving 0,6% of all available water. 

Hope on the horizon for some rain

The 'Rainbow' enhancement of today's 12 noon satellite image

While the remainder of today should be mostly sunny with few cloudy intervals, there is some hope for badly-needed rain for tomorrow, particularly during the first half of the day. A minor Atlantic depression of 1004 hPa is approaching and will soon be to the north of the Canary Islands near Madeira while filling before finally dissipating. 

There is already a lot of convective precipitation and thunderstorm activity around the low centre, but once again most of that rain is likely to pass to the north of the Canaries. There is however a good chance that La Gomera and the western Canary Islands will get some good showers and/or spells of rain, potentially even heavy ones, from late tonight until Wednesday evening.

We've also got an upper level low sitting over the same area which should aid the convective precipitation and a forming trough.  Warnings of some heavy downpours in parts of La Palma and Tenerife have been issued.

There's also the risk of some scattered thunderstorms, but the good news is that this time the winds will only be light to moderate from a mostly southerly direction. 

The weather should dry up late on Wednesday with a return to mostly sunny conditions and moderate north-easterly winds forecast for the remainder of the week.

This winter season has been much too dry in La Gomera and let's hope that this small depression will deliver some precious water before the dry weather returns.

To be on the safe side, mountain areas and ravines should be avoided tomorrow, though.

Plenty of water

La Gomera has an abundant supply of water and this winter nearly all the reservoirs are full and overflowing. The reservoirs are only used for irrigation of the crops in summer, while nearly all the drinking water and the domestic supply comes from wells and springs that produce water of excellent quality. The forest that covers the top of the island produces additional water when the mist and fog that are carried across the mountains by the trade winds condensate on the trees and percolate through the ground to feed the springs.