Benidorm exhibits its successful model in water management at the II Ágora of Sustainable Tourism of Hosteltur

The Councilor for the Presidency of Benidorm City Council, Juan Díaz, presented yesterday in Malaga Benidorm's model of success in the sustainable management of the water cycle and how the city has gone from a situation of lack to becoming a model of success thanks to his determination.

Díaz went to present the case of Benidorm at the II Sustainable Tourism Agora that was held in Malaga, organized by Hosteltur and Green Human, and which brought together about 450 attendees, both in person and online. In that forum, it was addressed that the only possible future for tourism lies in sustainability, a horizon in which the commitment of the public and private sectors and the collaboration between both is total.

The councillor of Benidorm indicated that Benidorm already began its commitment to sustainability 66 years ago, which he illustrated by pointing out that the city “consumes a lot of sky and little land” even though it has a resident population of about 70,450 people, while the floating ranges between 150,000 and 400,000. He also recalled that with just 38 square kilometers of surface, the commitment to the vertical model “allows 61% of the land to be protected.”

Juan Díaz also reviewed the history of Benidorm and its water investments since the first Town Charter was granted in 1325 until the present. Thus, he recalled that in 1666, the year of the second Town Charter, the town was supplied through the Reg Major de l'Alfàs, the subsequent supply wells, the creation of the Amadorio and Guadalest reservoirs, the first network of supply, the arrival of running water thanks to the wells purchased by the City Council or the years of drought and the creation of the Marina Baixa Water Consortium.

At that point, he narrated episodes such as the situation of “unsustainability of the hypogeal waters” or the crisis of 1978 in which Benidorm had to supply itself thanks to the supply of ships anchored in the bay. After that came the large investments, the construction of the WWTP, the Taibilla-Amadorio pipeline, the comprehensive management of Aquagest-Hidraqua, and the start-up of Dinapsis.

These policies, as the councilor alluded, brought recognitions such as the one achieved in 2019 with the National Sustainable City Award, in the Water Management category. “Also milestones such as 36 years after the Comprehensive Water Cycle, with 40% more population and 26% more hotel overnight stays, water consumption had decreased by 18%,” he noted. Among other data, he highlighted that water efficiency in the city is 96% “while the Spanish average is 70%” or that “36% of the treated water is reused.”

The management carried out by Benidorm has also resulted in a series of “strengths” among which he cited the awareness of the population, alliances to achieve objectives, the digitalization of processes, the maintenance of optimization levels, the permanent commitment to quality, the renewal and modernization of the networks, the prevalence of the water treatment plant, preferential attention to the energy cycle of the process and a total guarantee of supply and health security of supply.

Finally, Díaz presented the roadmap that Benidorm has set to continue advancing in this matter, which involves “concluding the digitalization of the drinking water network and the sewage network.” In addition, he specified actions that are carried out such as the collection of water from swimming pools for washing, environmental intelligence (Green Urban Data), and the sustainability macro-project 'Green and Water'.