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Chus Heredia
Malaga
Tuesday, 22 October 2024, 12:56
The procedures for the much-needed desalination plant in the Axarquía, to be undertaken and planned by the central government through the state-owned company Acuamed, are advancing, at the moment more thanks to the drive of the end users than to the speed of the government.
A key aspect is to agree on the uses and deliver the draft projects which the farmers and the public water company Axaragua have already done. They have agreed that half of the supply of the future plant will be for the countryside and the other half for domestic supply.
According to the president of the Mancomunidad association of town halls in the Axarquía, Jorge Martín, the preliminary project presented by the Junta de Andalucía includes 12 cubic hectometres per year for irrigation and 12 for domestic use (the latter is estimated at 22 hm3, according to the latest documents of the drought committees).
This would mean that more than half of the supply would come from desalinated water. The other main sources are La Viñuela reservoir, which currently has enough water for a year, and the River Chíllar wells in Nerja, which have been providing water to the Axarquía, as have the transfers of up to 270 litres per second from Malaga city (Emasa).
The farming community were constituted in 2023 as a central board and have joined forces with Axaragua as the final 'customers' for this project. "We are waiting to know where the plant will be located. We are complying with everything that is requested of us, quickly," explained Martín, who emphasised the pressing drought situation and the need to shorten deadlines. In this sense, he hopes that Acuamed will be able to start the project next year.
However, it was not until July that the government's cabinet of ministers awarded the contract to Acuamed; 14 months after the initial proposal. In the same session in which the green light was given, investments of 513 million were prioritised in Catalonia (223 million for a desalination plant in Barcelona and 290 million for another in Girona, which will be made with European funds and their cost will be returned by the users in a kind of 'mortgage', as in the Axarquía case).
From the meetings held between the regional government's department for agriculture and sustainability, now headed by Ramón Fernández Pacheco and previously by Carmen Crespo, and the Secretary of State for the Environment, Hugo Morán, the most optimistic timeframe is 2028 for the commissioning of the plant, for which the government has committed to advance funding of 100 million euros to be repaid in the form of a 30-year loan.
The desalination plant will be located on land determined by the Junta de Andalucía and Vélez-Málaga town hall in the vicinity of the existing sewage treatment plant and El Ingenio shopping centre, about two kilometres from the coast and on the riverbank. The land belongs to six different owners, which means that expropriations will have to be carried out. Sources consulted by SUR say that the government still has certain doubts about this site due to issues related to coastal dynamics.
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