Costa del Sol plans to source 30% of its water needs from wells and desalination plants

After the Junta's drought committee met last week, the drought status for the western coast still hovers between moderate and severe as it seeks more autonomy in its supply

Chus Heredia

Malaga

Sunday, 13 October 2024, 08:54

The western strip of the Costa del Sol wants to get through the coming hydrological year (1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025) with its own reservoir resources and, in principle, does not plan to take water from the Campo de Gibraltar, nor does it envisage transferring supplies to Malaga.

It aims to achieve this by taking advantage of the completion of the Rojas pumping station in Churriana, which allows exchanges of up to 500 litres per second in both directions. The technical report signed by the head of systems operations analyses various possible scenarios depending on rainfall. It is also entrusting that other resources deliver as promised, like the Fuengirola and Guadalmansa wells and Marbella's desalination plant, whose expanded capacity will benefit water supplies to the coast by 80% although it will not be at maximum capacity for another three months.

"The 2023-2024 hydrological year ended with 24.134 hm³, which represents 41.95% of the total volume of 57.54 hm³ that can go to reservoirs. The final volume is 3.979 hm3 higher than the volume at the beginning of the hydrological year," states the report, to which SUR has had access and which was the main agenda item at Thursday's meeting of the Junta's drought committee.

Storms Nelson and Monica

"Rainfall in the current hydrological year has been very scarce, which corresponds to a very dry year, especially in autumn, continuing the trend of recent years, but in March two tropical storms, Monica and Nelson, were concatenated and the latter at the end of Easter caused an important change in the hydrological situation of the supply network and has allowed the hydrological year to close in a situation of moderate shortage, although close to the limit of severe shortage", said the report.

For Costa residents the daily consumption limit is set at 200 litres per person, which is a drop of 10% compared to the summer, but better than the 180-litre limit going into the pipes for Malaga and the Axarquia, as SUR reported midweek.

Therefore, between the aforementioned wells and the Marbella seawater desalination plant, 30% of the coast's annual needs are expected to be covered.

Desalination plant: five of the eight lines operational this month

The recouping of the capacity of the desalination plant, sponsored by the regional government, aims to increase from the 6 hm³ per year that the deterioration of the plant allowed, bringing it back to 12 and then 20 respectively in two phases. This October five of the eight production lines are expected to be up and running and, gradually, all of them should be up and running by the end of January. Moreover, no technical shutdown is foreseen in December for maintenance. Thus, during the new hydrological year, the sea could already guarantee an appreciable 16 hm³ to the population located between Torremolinos and Manilva, according to Acosol's forecasts (the public water company for the Mancomunidad association of town halls on the western Costa del Sol).

In any case the technical report insists on the need for La Concepción reservoir, which due to its size never guarantees water for more than seven months, to be holding at least 20 hm³ by this time next year.

The technical calculations also indicate that, with the usual average rainfall or even half that, the aforementioned 200 litres per inhabitant per day could be considered and there would be no need to reduce these supplies. Otherwise, around the month of December, the scenario would have to be reconsidered and they would start with a 10% reduction in the supply from the reservoir located between Marbella and Istán.

In any case, the reservoir is ready to supply water even with a very low volume. Furthermore, at the beginning of next year the maximum use systems will be completely upgraded, making the term 'dead reservoir' obsolete because they allow almost every last drop of water to be extracted.

Looking at the tallies for the hydrological year that has just ended, the contribution of Marbella's desalination plant was 20.26%, that of the Fuengirola wells was 9.38%, and that of the Guadalmansa wells was 1.6%.

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