The Water Consortium plans additional contributions starting in the summer if it would not rain this spring

Marina Baixa Water Consortium predicts that it will be necessary to resort to external and additional contributions of water this summer if there is no rain throughout next spring. This was revealed this morning in the extraordinary session of the General Board of the Consortium that was held in Benidorm and was chaired by the mayor of the city, Toni Pérez.

At this meeting, the Emergency Plan for the drought situation in the Marina Baixa was approved - with only one vote against and the rest in favor - after specifying that the region has been at a drought pre-alert level since last year. Decembre 19th.

This Emergency Plan contemplates three different scenarios that have been revealed in the session. The first scenario involves a total absence of rain during the spring, which would mean that at the end of June the Marina Baixa would enter an emergency situation and external contributions of between 3 and 5 cubic hectometers would be necessary. This would be the most pessimistic scenario. The second would involve receiving the usual rains in this season, so the external contributions would also be the usual ones. The last planned scenario proposes the arrival of precipitation in spring, but not enough. If so, the external contributions planned for the summer would be between one and three cubic hectometres.

At the meeting of the General Board of the Water Consortium, the Supply Situation Report was also reported, which indicates that the year 2023 has been “very dry” and which states that “there is no data for an autumn as dry as it is in the region.” A situation that leads the Consortium to position itself against the ecological flows in the Guadalest and Amadorio rivers, contrary to what the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation (CHJ) maintains. The Consortium, in fact, uses a study carried out together with the University of Alicante that defends that both rivers “are ephemeral”, in contrast to the criteria of the Confederation, which indicates that they are permanent rivers.

The aforementioned report also highlights the need to continue improving water storage since “each cubic hectometer from the Mutxamel WWTP represents one million euros” and in the same sense it is indicated that we must continue making progress in the renewal of infrastructures and in the optimization of irrigation systems in the region.

And, as emphasized in the report, this continued investment over time is what has allowed consumption to be maintained over the years despite the increase in population. Thus, in the year 2000 the population in the Marina Baixa was 120,000 people and water consumption was then 19.92 cubic hectometers. In 2019 the population in the region had grown to 170,000 people and, however, consumption had remained at 19.74 cubic hectometers. The report emphasizes that demand has been maintained “due to the investment made in most supply networks.”