The director of the Ter-Llobregat water supply entity (ATL), David Vila, confirmed yesterday to the mayors affected by the loss of drinking water in the pipeline that connects the Ter water treatment plant with Badalona, of which there has been evidence since 2008, that the date set to put into service the alternative pipeline that allows the repair of the cracks, will take place at the end of 2026.
As this newspaper reported, the repair of the conduit is subject to the construction of its extension, which will function as an alternative to continue transporting the channels necessary for the supply. A section that was to be executed in 2009, after other leaks were repaired in 2003. A delay that the ATL attributes to the lack of budget allocation.
The director of the entity detailed to the municipal representatives the commitment to promote a “complex” work in a pipeline through which four cubic meters circulate per second and that “has not been done before so as not to interrupt the supply.” The work, with a tender of 36 million euros, has an execution period of 24 months that will begin next September.
The manager minimized the impact of the spill as it was required by the delay in the project, ensuring that 4,000 liters per second pass through the pipeline and that two liters per second are lost, so the performance of the Ter-Llobregat network is 98.21%, according to the audit carried out by the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Vila acknowledged, however, that “in a context of drought” these losses may seem more spectacular.
The mayor of Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Núria Parlon, was satisfied with the ATL's announcement but urged to speed up the responses. In the municipality of Besòs, between 70,000 and 75,000 liters are lost daily in the Les Oliveres park area: “We are waiting to find out how the town councils can collaborate so that there are fewer problems in the works,” she detailed. He insisted that it is time “to give a response to the citizens” at the same time that work begins in his city to recover part of the water to be reused for cleaning and irrigation with the construction of tanks to which the water that is now diverted is diverted. goes to the sewer.
In Badalona, where the most spectacular leak is located, in the Canyet neighborhood, where 180,000 liters are lost daily, the Councilor for the Environment, Sònia Egea, demanded emergency solutions to the current losses, until the new one is built. channeling that will prevent spills. “We are concerned about knowing the project to reuse water,” she said, as it is already being carried out in Badalona “with a reuse channel.”
The mayor of Montcada i Reixac, Bartolomé Egea, although he acknowledged not having any major leaks, asserted that “it is a very necessary work.”
