Planned new reservoir for Cadiz province to be doubled in size to boost short supply on Costa del Sol

The Gibralmedina reservoir, on a tributary of the River Guadiaro, would provide Malaga province with a guaranteed 15 cubic hectometres of water per year

Chus Heredia

Malaga

Friday, 2 February 2024, 17:06 | Updated 19:39h.

The long-term plan to supply around 500,000 people in the Campo de Gibraltar area in Cadiz province with water from a new reservoir close by their towns has been modified to react to the growing water problem.

Instead, almost half of that new supply of water could be diverted further afield onto the Costa del Sol under new plans from the Junta de Andalucía which it hopes will be sent to Madrid by March.

The Gibralmedina reservoir, on a tributary of the River Guadiaro, will be almost double what was initially planned thirty years ago and this could give enough capacity for the Costa del Sol for a year.

Once built, it would provide Malaga province with a guaranteed 15 cubic hectometres of water per year, part of which could even be pumped east to the drought-stricken Axarquía area.

The modification to the project came at the request of Acosol, the Costa del Sol's public water company. The text of the project gives "the same level of priority" to agricultural uses and supply to the east of Cadiz as to Malaga province.

This change, the document states, requires new calculations for the pipelines, new geological studies, tests, reconsideration of the model of the dam and the safety of the environment.

The dam wall would reach a height of 80 metres and would have a crest length of 1,400 metres. These dimensions and the characteristics of the terrain have also made it necessary to modify the foundations of the infrastructure. The location for the dam is in San Pablo Buceite.

In the early years of this century, it was planned to increase the capacity of La Concepción reservoir, between Marbella and Istán, with a bigger dam.

That reservoir, with a capacity of 57 hectometres, is forced to release water in the rainy season, which is a waste for the Costa del Sol. Since the Sierra de las Nieves mountains were declared a protected area it has become much harder to expand La Concepción.

This new Gibralmedina reservoir supply will be added to that of La Concepción and to the 20 hectometres that the Marbella desalination plant will produce this year and to the network of wells.

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