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María Albarral
Marbella
Thursday, 2 January 2025, 21:43
Water is a scarce resource on the Costa del Sol and, for this reason, water management policies are based on two major, medium-term actions: public awareness to save water and the promotion of recycled water being used wherever possible. It is precisely in this second area where Acosol, the publicly-owned water company for the western Costa del Sol, is already planning the first steps to ensure that, by later in 2025, the foundations are laid to implement this resource to cover the future irrigation needs of all the golf courses, parks and gardens in the area as well as street-cleaning. "Right now what we need is to stabilise the issue of conductivity because the sanitation network is very deteriorated and we already have a very clear roadmap for this", said Matilde Mancha as head of Acosol, adding that "all infrastructure work takes a long time and that is why we must never stop."
Therefore, the main challenge on the horizon is to use recycled water from intensive waste water treatment, thereby lowering the pressure on the reservoirs. "We cannot be constantly be looking to the skies to see if it will rain. We have to be self-sufficient. The recycling of waste water is critical for our area because irrigation accounts for 25 % of everything we consume and we are doing that with drinking water," said Mancha.
So Acosol is looking to 2025 with the focus on improving sanitation so that waste water reaches the treatment plants in the best possible conditions, avoiding salt getting into that waste water due to the deterioration of the network over the years.
"We are installing liners, fixing it from the inside without having to remove the pipe, thereby protecting it from salt getting in so that the water goes to the treatment plant with much less salt content. This allows us to be able to treat it better and have a better water quality for irrigation." Mancha then explained the next batch of work: "afterwards we must install ultrafiltration plants."
What will the initial work entail?
With regard to the most imminent infrastructure projects to address, both the Diputación (Malaga's provincial authority) and Acosol have recently signed a joint contract for over 3.3 million euros. This work is divided into two parts. The first, between the Las Cañas stream and the Guadalmansa pumping station (EBAR) in Estepona, covering almost 2 kilometres for a water-collection pipe that is 90 cm in diameter. The second area to address runs between Marbesa and the La Víbora WWTP (waste water treatment plant) in Marbella, installing a collector of identical width and just over half a kilometre long. A fibreglass mesh will also be installed as an inner lining. This will provide security for these sections, the most deteriorated in the network, guaranteeing that they stay watertight and preventing waste water from continuing to enter the treatment plants.
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