Benidorm will not impact on the 2017 receipt the cost of buying water if drought persists

The Consortium agrees with the proposal of the City Council to compensate with its remaining part of the cost of these contributions and thus reduce the contributions of each municipality The body will request the CHJ 7.5 cubic hectometres

Benidorm City Council will not impact on the receipt the cost of buying water next year for the Marina Baixa. The mayor, Toni Pérez, explained that "the City Council will assume the additional cost", which will have to face all municipalities in the region to acquire these external flows. The mayor transferred this information after the meetings of the General Board and the Standing Commission of the Consortium of Waters of the Marina Baixa held today in the Plenary Hall of the City Council, which has unanimously approved the budget for 2017. A budget that grows with respect to the previous year and which includes an increase in the quota for water consumption to deal with the purchase of "external flows". In total, and in anticipation that the drought situation can be maintained throughout 2017, the Consortium has approved to request a transfer of 7.5 cubic hectometres of water to the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation (CHJ), and has reserved almost 4 Millions of euros to pay the water. Initially, Benidorm had to disburse an additional 2 million euros for the purchase of water; An amount now reduced to 1.3 million after the Consortium has agreed, at the proposal of the City Council, to compensate with its remaining part of the disbursement to be made by the municipalities of the Marina Baixa. In this way the Consortium will use 1.2 million euros of that remaining to pay part of the extraordinary investment that will have to be made next year for the acquisition of water, thus reducing the money to be contributed by each municipality. In case the situation Water in the region improves in the coming months and it is not necessary to resort to all the water requested, the amounts to be disbursed by each municipality would be adjusted.