Digitalisation of water supply network is 'essential' according to head of Malaga's provincial authority

In his inauguration as president of the Diputación de Malaga (the provincial authority for Malaga province), Francisco Salado laid out the fight against drought in the province as one of the priorities of his current term of office. In his opinion, it was "essential" to digitalise water management in order to optimise its control, quickly detecting leaks and other anomalies in the networks.

This same message was conveyed by Salado just this Wednesday to the mayors of the 71 municipalities participating in the Malaga Aqua Rural 5.0 project, whose main objective is to improve the control of water consumption through the implementation of digital systems that will monitor and optimise the use of our scarce water resources.

This project will see 15.5 million euros invested into the digitisation of the integral water cycle, 10 million of which is to come from the second bid for funding by the strategic projects for economic recovery and transformation (PERTE) scheme to the Next Generation European funds. PERTE is a collaboration, a joining of forces between the relevant water companies - Hidralia, Aguas de Benahavís and Acosol - and the town halls of Marbella, Benahavís and Estepona, aimed at preserving scarce water resources threatened by climate change. The remaining 5.5m euros will come from the Diputación's own funds.

"There is no doubt that the lack of water is one of the most serious problems facing our province, both because of the repercussions it is already having on the supply of water to the population in some municipalities and because of the serious difficulties it is causing, above all, for farmers and livestock breeders. That is why, knowing that we have such a limited and scarce resource, we must make the most of it and not waste a drop of water", Francisco Salado told the municipal representatives gathered in the Diputación's main meeting hall.

Salado asked for the collaboration of the town councils for the plans and studies to be carried out and for the operatives and municipal technical staff to facilitate the installation and start-up of the control devices in the water installations and networks.

The three key actions planned for this project are as follows: the development of plans to facilitate the efficiency of the integral water cycle and its adaptation to climate change; specific interventions to improve the digitalisation of water consumption; and the design of a platform and a web portal with information and digital tools useful for managers and open to the public.

The planning work includes the drafting of sanitary water quality plans, hydrogeological studies of groundwater, comprehensive management plans for municipal sewerage systems, emergency plans for drought and provincial-level master plans for supply and sewerage infrastructure, among others. All of this with a budget of 1.8 million euros, according to Malaga's provincial authority.

The section on investments and specific interventions to improve the efficiency and digitalisation of the integral water cycle totals almost 12.9 million euros and includes, among other actions, the right technology in municipal catchments to monitor water levels, flows, pressure and quality and the monitoring of the output of tanks and the control of leaks in the municipal infrastructure for the drinking water supply. It also includes the implementation of a pilot plan for the installation of remote-reading water meters and the application of remote management solutions in pumping stations and wastewater treatment plants.

Lastly, 836,000 euros have been allocated to web platforms and information systems and digital tools, according to data provided by the Diputación.