Technological visit of the Minister of Public Works of Chile to Aigües de Barcelona

Juan Carlos García Pérez de Arce, Minister of Public Works of the current government of Chile, chaired by Gabriel Boric, visited some of the main facilities of Aigües de Barcelona this morning with the aim of learning first-hand about the company's good practices in Management of integrated water cycle.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
30 September 2022 Friday 06:35
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Technological visit of the Minister of Public Works of Chile to Aigües de Barcelona

Juan Carlos García Pérez de Arce, Minister of Public Works of the current government of Chile, chaired by Gabriel Boric, visited some of the main facilities of Aigües de Barcelona this morning with the aim of learning first-hand about the company's good practices in Management of integrated water cycle. Likewise, he wanted to delve into solutions that are already being carried out in Barcelona such as water reuse.

In the current context of climatic emergency and water scarcity, the company leads technological solutions in water management both in Barcelona and in Santiago de Chile. One of the most sustainable ways of protecting underground resources and adapting to the effects of climate change is water regeneration, that is, subjecting purified water to a new treatment so that it can be reused following a circular model. In Barcelona it is already being carried out, and Chile also wants to implement it to address the country's water scarcity.

This circularity makes it easier not to depend exclusively on environmental and climatic conditions to guarantee access to water and favors the preservation of the ecological status of rivers and aquifers. Aigües de Barcelona managed to regenerate, during 2021, a total of 38 hm3 of water, the equivalent of 11,250 Olympic swimming pools.

During the visit, the Chilean minister gave a positive assessment of the management model that the company carries out -24 hours a day, 365 days a year- to guarantee the quality, safety and continuity of this essential resource that consumes more than 3 million inhabitants in the Barcelona metropolitan area

Minister Juan Carlos García Pérez de Arce was accompanied by the president of Aigües de Barcelona, ​​Àngel Simón; by the director of the General Directorate of Waters of the Ministry of Public Works (MOP) of Chile, Rodrigo Sanhueza; by the head of the MOP advisers, Carlos Estévez; and Daniel Tugues, Director of Operations for Aguas Andinas.

As facilities, they have visited the operational control center and the laboratory of the Collblanc headquarters, the Baix Llobregat treatment plant, the Dinapsis operation and digital services center, in addition to other facilities such as the Llobregat desalination plant.

The meeting highlighted the good management of Aguas Andinas, the company in charge of managing the integral water cycle in the metropolitan region of Santiago de Chile, the capital of the country, which serves nearly 8 million inhabitants. Aguas Andinas has been part of the Agbar group for more than 20 years, a relationship based on a public-private collaboration model, thanks to which the Andean region became the first in Latin America to reach 100% more than a decade ago. of wastewater treatment, currently being a benchmark in the management of the integral water cycle in the subcontinent.

In this sense, it is worth mentioning the recognition obtained by the Greater Santiago biofactory (wastewater treatment plant that generates new resources such as biogas, reused water, sludge) at the COP24 in Katowice, an award granted by the United Nations for the contribution of this facility to mitigate the effects of climate change.