The Water Consortium asks the CHJ to send water from Júcar as an alternative to the Mutxamel desalination plant

The Marina Baixa Water Consortium held an extraordinary general meeting this Thursday to update the water situation of the region and put forward some proposals to improve management at this time of drought alert.

Among them, is the claim to the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation (CHJ) to comply with Royal Decree 35/2023, of January 24, which approves the review of the Hydrological Plans of several areas, and establishes that external contributions for the Marina Baixa will come from the Mutxamel desalination plant or the Júcar, and not only from the former, as is now planned.

This proposal has been unanimously agreed upon by the board, which has met in the Plenary Hall of the Benidorm City Council and has been chaired by the mayor of Benidorm and president of the Provincial Council, Toni Pérez. Mayors and councillors of the municipalities of the region, members of the Consortium, members of the CHJ, and the vice president of the Provincial Council, Ana Serna, also participated.

In the session, the latest supply report prepared by the technical director of the Consortium, Jaime Berenguer, was reported, a report that once again guarantees the water supply for both human consumption and irrigation for the remainder of 2024. , despite the lack of rain. Specifically, according to data from this organization, between June 2023 and June 2024, 141.70 l/m2 have been collected at the Algar reference station, resulting in “one of the driest annual periods in the world” in the last 50 years.

The technician has explained that, although its start-up was initially projected for June, on May 14, external contributions from the Mutxamel IDAM began to arrive at the Marina Baixa, corresponding to the planned advance of 1 hm³ for 2024. An amount that, “Although it has managed to stabilize the situation of the reservoirs,”  only represents “40% of the planned volume.” Given this fact, and the forecast that this hectometer will be completed with the transfer of another 5 additional cubic hectometers that were approved at the general meeting last May, the Consortium has demanded that in addition to the desalinated water from Mutxamel, water from the Júcar system as an alternative, as stated in Royal Decree 35/2023. On the one hand, to guarantee compliance with all the contributions planned and approved for 2024; on the other, to ensure the arrival of these flows if any eventuality occurs in one or the other that prevents the transfer.

On the other hand, the Consortium has also unanimously approved to request of the Department of Environment, Water, Infrastructure and Territory to replace the current Reverse Osmosis membranes urgently, and, in turn, expand the Tertiary to 100% of the water produced in the Benidorm WWTP. With this expansion, more flows would be obtained for the use of regenerated water by the irrigation communities of the Canal Bajo del Algar, Altea, La Vila Joiosa and La Nucía, in addition to complementing the flow in the final stretches of the rivers of Amadorio and Guadalest, avoiding, in turn, the dumping into the sea of ​​leftovers that cannot be reused.

Another issue that has also been carried out unanimously has been the extension of the delegation in the Provincial Council of Alicante of the powers of collection in the executive period to all public law income owned by the Consortium, at the same time that it has been given account of various budgetary matters.