Malaga village declares water unfit for drinking after detecting high chlorate levels
An incident in the Los Almanchares reservoir requires the distribution of bottled water to 1,400 residents in the Axarquía district
The town hall of the Canillas de Aceituno village in the Axarquía district has banned the consumption of tap water in a large part of the municipality after detecting high levels of chlorates.
The incident impacts some 1,400 residents out of a total of 1,800. The town hall has set up a bottled water distribution system to guarantee supply. Around 400 residents can continue consumind tap water, as they receive supply from safe areas.
The culprit is the municipal tank, into which the river and the Los Almanchares well flow. Its water can only be used for personal hygiene and cleaning, but not for drinking, cooking or any use that involves food.
The river Bermuza tank maintains parameters that make its water fit for consumption.
The town hall has set up a distribution system for bottled water.
"We ask the population to use water responsibly so that all households can have access to available supply," the town hall said in a statement.
The Axarquía district's network deficiencies
The potable water problem recently affected other municipalities in the Axarquía. Just before Christmas, the residents of Iznate, El Borge and Totalán declared their water unfit for consumption due to high levels of chlorate.
The maximum level of chlorates in water fit for drinking should be 0.7 milligrams per litre. Chlorates are not an external pollutant, but a by-product of the chlorine disinfection process, whose concentration can be increased by prolonged storage of water, the use of hypochlorite or deficiencies in infrastructure maintenance.
Iznate was the first to return to normality after obtaining favourable analyses, while El Borge and Totalán maintained the restrictions for a longer period of time.
Anomalies are often located in municipal reservoirs and networks, which are more exposed to variations.
Both the affected municipalities and public company Axaragua agree that the high levels coming from the La Viñuela system remain within legal parameters, so the anomalies are usually located in the municipal reservoirs and networks, which are more exposed to variations.
The situation in Canillas de Aceituno once again highlights a structural problem in the interior of the Axarquía district: the difficulty of guaranteeing water quality in small municipalities with aging infrastructure, in a context of increasingly demanding health regulations.
