of all economic sectors island. 3 This, it would be one of the first desalination plants on the planet, would be to Lanzarote the opportunity of entering into new economic sectors that secular alejasen its underdevelopment . Until the 70s, a major part of the electricity consumed on the island came from a generator installed on a ship anchored in the port of Arrecife, and were in use zones volcanic mounds covered with cement, to collect rainwater and stored in tanks until it was safe. In much earlier times, the conejeros acquired for consumption serving water ballast on ships arriving in port.
Manrique and the beginnings of tourism
In 1966 , the Lanzarote artist César Manrique returns from his stay in New York and settled permanently in Lanzarote. 4Manrique was soon underway to create the conditions under which the island would become a tourist destination that respects the landscape and identity cultural, finding the necessary support in the figure of the then president of the Cabildo , José Ramírez Cerdá. The tandem César Manrique - Jose Ramirez, along with social consciousness generated by the insular newspaper "La Antena", made it possible to turn in a decade, to Lanzarote in more than a tourist destination of great weather and beaches, where the landscape agriculture, the volcanic nature of the island, the idiosyncrasies of the island, the traditional art and architecture combined to create a genuine tourist brand. In 1968 it was opened to the public visited the stretch of the Cueva de los Verdes , conditioned by artist Jesus Soto. That same year, Manrique inaugurated the sculpture "Fertility", or " Monumento al Campesino ", in the geographical center of the island, next to a house-museum inspired by traditional architecture. In this work would follow those of the Mirador del Rio , the Visitor Center Mountain of Fire ( Timanfaya ), the International Art Museum of San José Castle and conditioning of
