ARCHIVED - More desalinated water required this year as drought threatens .

Desalination plants are still in construction as Ministers debate their future.

Although Spain´s reservoirs are at 62.1% capacity, supplies are dropping, and whilst these levels of water stocks are a far cry from the crisis levels experienced in the past, preparations to guarantee continued supply this summer are already well underway.

The Canales de Taibilla Association (MCT), which is responsible for the water supply in Murcia, Valencia and Castilla La Mancha, has said that it is preparing to increase the amount of desalinated water used this summer.

Bizarrely, this decision is being taken at a time when the whole desalination programme is being called into question, with the Minister for agriculture clashing with the EC over the current stand-down of plants which have been constructed to find a sustainable solution to Spains long term water supply issues.

This summer, the MCT anticipates that it will need to purchase more desalinated water, with the drought of the last twelve months resulting in less water being available from the Taibilla river and the reservoirs at the head of the Tajo. Much of the water we use in this region is transferred down from the North via a system of reservoirs and canals, as we produce very little of our own, having the lowest rainfall rates of any province in Spain.
Despite the rain which has fallen this week, the authorities are already assuming that by October the Segura Basin will be in a state of “pre-alert”.
In total, 2,300 million euros, has been spent on building seven desalination plants, two still under construction, 1,500 million of which came from EU funds,  which in theory should help to meet the deficit in supply. But the true spending is even higher, if we take into account the canals and water deposits which have been added to the four oldest plants, in Alicante and San Pedro del Pinatar.

The 2.5 million people living in the area supplied by the MCT use about 200 cubic hectometers of water per year, although demand has fallen since the onset of the economic crisis and the collapse of the construction sector.

The four desalination plants which supply the MCT have a maximum production capacity of 84 cubic hectometers per year, and a further 20 Hm3 are available from the Valdelentisco plant in Isla Plana, the latest to be built, meaning around 104 cubic hectometres of water are available to the MCT.

 Last year, however, only 55 Hm3 were produced, as compared to 43 in 2010 and this year the MCT had planned to buy around 45 cubic hectometres of water from the desalination plants.

Of the five desalination plants currently in working order which could supply water to the area, only the one in San Pedro del Pinatar is actually in production as with this level of pre-orders, there isn’t enough demand for the others to be “switched on”.
But even whilst the whole programme of desalination is under discussion, expenditure continues, with another new desalination plant at Águilas completed, pending electrical supply.

The plant at Águilas is now undergoing tests, and it is anticipated that it will be ready to start working in about a year’s time. The plant is still waiting for work on the necessary electricity supply to be completed, and this is the reason for the continuing delay, the project taking 7 years to date.
Similar problems occurred at the plant in Valdelentisco, in Isla Plana (Cartagena), where a wait of a year was necessary before the necessary electricity was made available.

The maximum capacity of the Águilas plant will be 70 Hm3 per annum, and state-owned company Acuamed has reached an agreement with irrigation associations in Águilas, Lorca and Pulpí to sell them 48 Hm3 every year, with the price reduced by a 30% subsidy. Another part of the water produced will go to the MCT for use by residents, although in theory the MCT doesn’t need this water, as it already has more than double the amount required available already from other non-functioning desalination plants.

The future of the desalination program will be analysed in Madrid this week when Miguel Arias Cañete, Spain’s Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Environment, meets Antonio Cerdá, the regional minister from Murcia. This is their second meeting, following the occasion in January when they were joined by regional president Ramón Luis Valcárcel, and the Minister is facing the decision whether to terminate the government’s investment in a plan which he himself has described as a “failure”.