Benidorm will improve its water management with an irrigation pond to store purified water

Benidorm and Marina Baixa are going to improve their water management thanks to the construction of two irrigation ponds in which purified water will be stored for its subsequent use by irrigators in the region. One of these two ponds, of 21,000 cubic meters, will be located in Benidorm, specifically next to the sewage treatment plant and Serra Gelada tertiary treatment plant.

The councilman of Water, José Ramón González de Zárate, has indicated that yesterday he realized the situation and procedure in which the project is during the General Meeting of the Consortium of Waters of the Marina Baixa held in Benidorm. The construction of the pond "is included in the Vertebra Plan of the Provincial Council, financed 100% with resources of the provincial body."

Specifically, to execute the two ponds planned in the region, the Water Consortium has received a subsidy of 900,000 euros from the Provincial Council.

De Zárate explained that "it is a fundamental infrastructure for us and that affects the efficiency of our model of reuse and use." The councilor has specified that "there are periods or times of the year, mainly after an episode of rains, in which the production of purified water exceeds the volume of consumption of the irrigators".

Currently, and in the absence of storage facilities, "part of the treated and desalinated water that is not consumed by irrigators ends up in the sea". Although this spill "has no environmental impact, we are dispensing with water resources needed at other times of the year." That is why the construction of this pond has been considered "a priority", in which we will be able to store 21,000 cubic meters of reclaimed water that will be injected into Canal del Bajo Algar network -which serves six municipalities- when the irrigators need it. "

De Zárate has clarified that "the construction of the pond does not contravene the PORN of Serra Gelada", since it is located "in the zone of special uses, the only one in which an infrastructure of this type has room". However, this plot is quite constricted and the lack of space has forced to project a pond with half the desired capacity and to build a second one in another point of the region.

For this reason, the councilor has taken up the demand of the Consortium so that the Regional Ministry modifies the PORN to "make compatible the use of additional plots next to the treatment plant with the execution of water infrastructures". In this way, "we could opt for new subsidies, not only for reclaimed water but also for making drinking water storage ponds." Infrastructures that, in addition, would improve security and response time in cases of forest fires.