Benidorm will have a municipal forest fire fighting network with purified water

The municipality of Benidorm will have a municipal forest fire-fighting network with treated water that will allow it to act much more efficiently in areas with significant forest cover. To this end, the Water Cycle Department will commission Hidraqua, the concessionaire of the drinking water and sewerage service, to draft the execution project for the aforementioned municipal network within a maximum period of three months.

The proposal by councillor José Ramón González de Zárate will be addressed and ruled on in the next Urban Planning Information Commission and approved by the Local Government Board and the project will be financed by the economic resources available in the drinking water and sewerage contract.

It is worth remembering that on 15 July the Government Board agreed to ask Hidraqua to draft the Master Plan for the Municipal Service for the Reuse of Treated Water in the city, the objective of which is to increase water consumption for compatible uses within the municipality. One of these uses will be the use of treated water to supply the fire hydrant network that will be distributed throughout the city, “with special importance to those that will be used to meet the possible demand of forest areas such as El Moralet, El Murtal, L’Aigüera alta, the Parque de la Séquia Mare or surroundings of the PORN of Serra Gelada, etc. forest areas close to the urban area and essential for Benidorm” said Mayor Toni Pérez.

The mayor also highlighted that very close to and even crossing these areas, “there is the pipeline for reusing treated water from the WWTP, which has sufficient flow and pressure to provide the basic fire fighting service in the event of an emergency”.

In this sense, Toni Pérez has highlighted the “urgency” of undertaking this action and has argued that “the dry season in which we find ourselves gives these green areas a high potential risk of fire”. This is why Hidraqua is being asked to draft the project, regardless of whether it is included in the Master Plan for the Municipal Service for the Reuse of Treated Water “so that it can be carried out in the shortest possible time”.

The project requested by Hidraqua must consider several conditions. Thus, it must be coordinated and adapted to the instructions given by the Local Security and Emergency Corps (Firefighters, Civil Protection, Local Police…) and by the Canal Bajo del Algar Irrigation Community, which is the owner of the reuse pipeline that would supply the planned fire-fighting network.

Likewise, the scope of the project will include all green areas, parks, forested or undeveloped areas that could be served in conditions of safety, flow and pressure from the reuse pipeline for treated water. The future distribution network, in addition, will have to be installed preferably along existing roads and avoid affecting forest areas. In cases where this is not possible, the hydrants will be located in the closest possible areas (cannons or special hydrants) with the possibility of activating and directing them appropriately. Finally, the network must have the control and location systems necessary for this type of installation.