What does the future hold for the water supply in Benalmádena?

It was in 1994 when Benalmádena town hall created Emabesa, a municipal company that was established to bring together all the services of the integral water cycle in the Costa del Sol municipality. The idea was to guarantee an effective and efficient water supply to all residents. A year later, when Enrique Bolín was mayor, he decided to give a private entity a stake in the company's share capital.

This is how Emabesa became a joint venture, in which Benalmádena council had 50 per cent of the ownership and the company Aqualia, from the FCC group, the other 50 per cent.

The contract between the council and Aqualia has been in force for all this time, until Monday 16 June, when it was terminated. The question that arises, therefore, is what is going to happen now with the water supply in Benalmádena? Who is going to be in charge of managing this service?

These questions are not free of controversy. So much so that this Thursday, 19 June, a special full council session will be held just to deal with this issue. This will be done following the request presented by the PSOE, as the law includes this possibility when it is raised by at least a quarter of the members of the corporation.

This plenary session comes in the absence of information from the local government, which for the moment has only made it clear that management will remain in the hands of Emabesa while "the process of approving the new management model" is progressing. In the words of the councillor for water, Juan Olea, "While all the procedures for the tender are being carried out, the service is guaranteed, based on the principles of sustainability, economic efficiency, effective public control and guaranteed continuity of the service."

But the key question is why these procedures were not initiated earlier in order to have arrived at the end date of the contract with a new tender already under way. It also remains to be seen what consequences this transition period between one contract and the next may have for the municipality, for which no dates have been announced.

Despite the fact that the current government team has been in charge for two years, Olea pointed the finger at the previous PSOE government and blamed it for not having anticipated the end of the contract. "The clearest proof that things were not done properly is that a technical auditor should have been appointed ten years ago to oversee this situation, but the previous government decided to abstain and incomprehensibly did not appoint one, even though it was obliged to do so.

The fact is that Emabesa continues, according to the councillor, due to "an exceptional situation for reasons of public interest, together with the need for continuity of service" without a time horizon and until it is decided how the water will be managed from now on.

In order to make this decision, the town hall has hired an external consultancy firm to determine the "most viable model for the municipality", according to Olea. PSOE and IU in opposition have already openly stated their support for the municipalisation of the service. For its part, VOX criticised the current councillor for his "inaction, opacity, negligence and lack of foresight in the management of the public water service in Benalmádena".