The City Council must face the investment with its own funds given the refusal of the CHJ to allocate resources from the European Union or the central government
Benidorm once again requests the SPTCV the assignment of pumping and seawater pipes to build a desalination plant
The future plant would involve an investment of six million and would have the capacity to produce three cubic hectometres per year
Benidorm City Council will once again request the Sociedad Proyectos Tématicas de la Comunidad Valenciana (SPTCV) to transfer the facilities of the seawater pumping station on Paseo de Tamarindos, as well as the supply and return pipes, the collection and underwater discharges and the works carried out corresponding to the desalination plant.
The purpose of this petition is to undertake the construction of a desalination plant, which has already been included in the Hydrological Plan of the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation (CHJ) thanks to the allegations presented in December 2021 by the consistory. This is a petition that dates back to 2015.
The financing of the aforementioned plant, however, must be borne by the City Council since the Hydrological Plan itself indicates that it will be "exclusively local". In this sense, mayor Toni Pérez has specified that the CHJ document "does not propose the allocation of any economic resources at the level of the Government of Spain or Next Generation Funds for its construction, unlike other infrastructures provided for in the Hydrological Plan”.
"The good news is that the desalination plant has finally been included in the Hydrological Plan, but the bad news is that it will be the City Council that has to bear the costs of the investment," the mayor specified. Said investment amounts to six million euros, will be carried out in the period 2022-2027 and the plant would have "a production capacity of about 3 Hm3 per year".
The future installation appears in the Program of Actions of the Hydrological Plan under the name of "Actions for the adaptation and start-up of the Benidorm desalination plant and its complementary works in the Marina Baixa exploitation system".
The mayor recalled that "this infrastructure is provided for in the town planning regulations" and added that "there is currently a seawater pumping station and completely legalized impulsion and discharge pipes into the sea, in the absence of their connection to the plant desalination plant”.
The City Council has a project for a desalination plant drawn up by municipal technicians that only needs to be adapted to current technology. Regarding its location, said municipal project proposes the construction of the plant in the vicinity of Juan Pablo II avenue and the use of the existing outfall on Poniente beach. "With the claim and creation of this infrastructure, we continue working for the present and future of Benidorm" Pérez assured.
It should be remembered that the action already has the relevant authorization for the environmental impact of the submarine outfall, the pumping station, and the desalination plant itself. The objective of the measure, Toni Pérez has reiterated, is to "increase the guarantees of supply for a city that lives on tourism and that must be prepared for possible contingencies or water shortages."
The planned actions include the review and adaptation of the submarine outfall, the seawater collection pipe, the pumping station, and the impulsion pipe. Also the provision of equipment for the desalination plant and the completion and start-up of the installation.