The Lanzarote water board, Inalsa, has had to limit the supply of water to numerous villages across the island over the last two days to ensure that the main holiday resorts such as Puerto del Carmen and Playa Blanca are able to satisfy demand.

This latest shortfall in desalinated water is the result of a breakdown at the plant in Arrecife. As a result, many villages in the north, south and centre of the island had their supply cut until 22.00 on Tuesday night.

This is the ninth time the service has been interrupted this year, either due to excessive demand or technical difficulties, such as broken pipes or mechanical failure at the desalination plant.

Amongst the many towns and villages affected were Guime, Masdache, Tao, San Bartolomé, Teguise, Los Valles, Haria, Orzola and Guatiza. In effect, only Arrecife and the coastal holiday resorts remained unaffected.

Normally, Inalsa works on the principle that residential users should have a storage capacity for 120 litres per person per day, with 250 litres required per day in the tourist areas to meet the additional demand created by holidaymakers to the island.