Reaction to Vélez-Málaga's nighttime water cuts 'more positive than expected'

Eugenio Cabezas / Jennie Rhodes

Vélez-Málaga

Tuesday, 25 July 2023, 10:07 | Updated 16:26h.

Three weeks after water company Aqualia introduced nighttime cuts to the water supply in Vélez-Málaga, "the situation has turned out to be more positive than expected", the town hall said in a statement last Friday 21 July, adding, “since the cuts have been minimised to a large extent and finally only certain areas have been affected".

It has mainly affected the town centres of Torre del Mar and Vélez-Málaga "as they have the largest population and, therefore, the highest consumption". However, Lagos and Mezquitilla to the east and Almayate to Chilches, Hacienda Condemar and Cortijo El Conde to the west, have not suffered any type of water cut in the last three weeks. Caleta de Vélez had cuts at first but the interruptions there “are now minimal”, according to the town hall.

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The town hall also highlighted in its statement "the collective awareness of the residents of Vélez-Málaga” following a call regarding the need to use water responsibly, “which has improved the availability of water” the statement said, adding “So from the town council we encourage [residents] to continue and increase this effort as much as possible".

According to the town hall, "the key to minimising water cuts has been the intense technical work of regulating the more than 30 water deposits in the extensive municipal area of Vélez-Málaga". Of these, six have been alternately cut off: Torre del Mar, Casa La Viña, Parque del Este, El Romeral, Fortaleza and Baviera Golf. Aqualia has been altering the levels of the tanks to prioritise the filling of one or the other according to availability and demand for water from each population area.

According to the town hall, "a critical moment was the Weekend Beach Festival from 5 to 8 July in Torre del Mar, when, according to the organisers, 100,000 people congregated in the town. This meant an extra regulatory effort to prevent this massive influx of visitors from destabilising the water supply system during the day, but the situation was successfully managed and, except for the night-time cut-off time, both the festival and the residents of Torre del Mar had water in their taps,” they pointed out.

The Mancomunidad de Municipios in the Axarquía, along with Axaragua, the public water company run by the Mancomunidad, has started an awareness campaign via its social network pages in Spanish. The English version is due to be launched today, Tuesday 25 July.

Using hashtags including #everydropcounts; #savewatertogether; #limitconsumption and #iamsavingwater, the campaign offers tips to encourage saving water at home, such as using the washing machine and dishwasher at full load, flushing the toilet only when necessary or turning off the water stopcock if you are going to be away from home for several days.

The town hall has also reminded everyone that, according to the municipal drought by law, the use of drinking water to water gardens, fill and refill swimming pools, or washing cars outside authorised establishments are all forbidden.

Aqualia has provided all residents with an e-mail address where they can report any faults, leaks or irregular use of water detected to: UsoResponsableVelez@aqualia.fcc.es, so that it can act quickly to prevent water loss.

The campaign can be found on Facebook: Mancomunidad de Municipios Costa del Sol Axarquia, Twitter: @AxarquiaMNC, Instagram: #CostaDelSolAxarquía