The Water Consortium plans to launch the bidding process for the Benidorm desalination plant before the end of 2026

The Marina Baixa Water Consortium plans to begin the bidding process for the Benidorm desalination plant before the end of 2026, as announced during the extraordinary session of its General Meeting held today in Benidorm.

Among other matters discussed during this session, the status of the new plant's processing was addressed, and the cancellation of the bidding process for the infrastructure project was reported. At this point, Jaime Berenguer, the Consortium's technical director, explained that the entity decided to suspend the bidding process due to an objection filed by a company regarding one of the award criteria.

That bidding process began on September 9th with a budget of €594,385.48. To avoid stalling the process for three to six months, the Consortium decided a few days ago to withdraw this criterion and provisionally suspend the bidding process. "It has been re-uploaded to the state's Procurement Platform after eliminating the issue, and now only professional experience will be considered," he stated. This action has led to the suspension of the process, lasting only a few days. In this regard, Toni Pérez, Mayor of Benidorm and President of the Consortium, expressed his agreement with "this decision taken from a technical perspective."

Thus, Berenguer stated that the Consortium is confident that next year "we will have the project in our hands and undertake the bidding process for the desalination plant before the end of 2026." Berenguer also indicated that the investment "will be around €25 million, although the project will determine the final budget."

It has also been reported that the Regional Ministry will finance 50% of the cost of the desalination plant, while the Alicante Provincial Council will cover 25%, and the Water Consortium itself the remaining 25%. The planned flow rate of the facility will be six cubic hectometers.

During the same session, the report on the supply situation in the region was presented, in which Berenguer highlighted the "drought alert situation" in the Marina Baixa region, as well as the decline in resources as a result of climate change, water reserves, and ecological flows. The reserves, Berenguer explained, "are an imposition by the Ministry of maximum monthly volumes in the reservoirs based on the probability of rainfall, which limits the reservoir's useful capacity." He also lamented that the CHJ imposes ecological flows on the Guadalest and Amadorio rivers "even though they are wadi rivers." In response, he added, an appeal has been filed with the Supreme Court to overturn this requirement "since these flows represent almost three cubic hectometers."

The technical director of the Water Consortium has emphasised that, given the current situation, the region will have to continue receiving contributions from the Rabasa-Fenollar-Amadorio pipeline in 2026.