The Canary Coalition (CC) has once again focused on an issue that combines environmental risk, administrative opacity and geopolitical sensitivity: the importation of sand from Western Sahara by cement companies based in the Archipelago.
According to the nationalist group, the main recipient in the province of Las Palmas would be the Masaveu family's plant in El Pajar (San Bartolomé de Tirajana), in the south of Gran Canaria, identified by CC of Fuerteventura as the most common destination for the shipments unloaded in recent years.
Senator Pedro San Ginés of the Canary Coalition has demanded that the Spanish government respond immediately to the information request submitted in August 2024. The request sought a detailed list of vessels that, between 2021 and 2024, unloaded sand at the ports of Arrecife, Puerto del Rosario, and La Luz from El Aaiún or other locations in Western Sahara. The aim of the request was to determine the volume, origin, and final destination of the materials extracted from the non-self-governing territory, as well as whether they underwent health or environmental controls before distribution.
Fourteen months later, the official response has still not arrived, prompting the senator to submit a new written parliamentary question to the regional government. In it, in addition to reiterating the lack of transparency regarding imports, San Ginés warns of the health and customs risks stemming from the inactivity of the Border Inspection Post (BIP) in Puerto del Rosario, Fuerteventura. He alleges that the lack of personnel prevents the verification of materials arriving from the African continent, including the tons of sand unloaded this week by the ship Dura Bulk, which came from the Sahrawi port of El Aaiún.
“The State has an obligation to guarantee effective controls in all ports of general interest,” warns San Ginés, noting that the Fuerteventura Border Inspection Post (PIF) still lacks sufficient staffing to operate.
The Canary Coalition believes that the import of sand from Western Sahara poses three simultaneous problems: an international legal vacuum, given that the territory remains under United Nations supervision; a health risk, as the sand does not undergo phytosanitary or environmental inspections; and an economic and reputational impact, by involving Spanish companies in the exploitation of natural resources in a territory pending decolonization.
In this context, CC demands that the Spanish Government clarify the role of the Masaveu cement company in the supply chain, determine if there is a violation of international regulations and activate the necessary border controls in the Canary Islands ports.
Meanwhile, the case of the “gray gold of the Sahara” — as some have dubbed it in political and environmental circles — adds a new point of friction between the Canary Islands and the State, at a time when the management of African resources and relations with Morocco are once again at the center of the Archipelago's political debate.
