The current drought scenario is forcing administrations to explore all types of actions to guarantee drinking water in the short and medium term. The Consorci d'Aigües Costa Brava Girona, an organization dependent on the Girona Provincial Council, has announced today that it will invest 4.5 million euros in a shock plan to increase this water resource before this summer.
A shock plan that, as explained by the president of the Girona Provincial Council, Miquel Noguer, is motivated by "the continued drought" and that must contribute to "improving water quality, fighting against leaks and exploring new water catchments." deep water".
To this figure we must add one million more, which is what the Consorci estimates that a pilot plant in Roses will cost that will allow the aquifers to be recharged using treated water from the treatment plant. The idea is that this plant can purify water and make it drinkable and then inject it into the aquifers in the area.
A process that is not pioneering and that is carried out, for example, in other dry areas of the planet such as California, as explained by Jordi Agustí, the director of the consortium. The forecast is that the construction of the plant will take about six months and in two years, after the relevant studies, it will work at full capacity.
The objective is that the aquifers can have reserves in future drought episodes and avoid throwing water into the sea, something that happens daily. The Consorci currently has 18 treatment plants, of which 14 discharge water into the sea.
Agustí considers it "absurd" to dump it into the sea and then have to desalinize it, with the high cost that this operation entails.
In addition to this action, the Consortium, which manages the high water in 47 coastal and pre-littoral municipalities of the demarcation (of about 300,000 inhabitants, about a million in the middle of the summer season) has detailed nine other actions that it will carry out before to start this campaign.
Of particular note is the construction of a third well in Gualta to give more guarantees to the Community of Palafrugell, Begur, Pals, Regencós and Torrent. An action valued at 220,000 euros. Another well has also been recovered in Cadaqués, in the area of La Gallinera, which had been abandoned 35 years ago, at a cost of 305,000 euros.
In the area around the Muga River, a battery of wells will be built as an emergency collection system for the area's aquifer. "We have started doing the surveys," explains Agustí. Wells that will help supply the Empuriabrava treatment plant. In this action, the Consorci will invest 2.6 million euros.
Another line of action, estimated at nearly 600,000 euros, will focus on improving the quality and drinkability of water. "When the quantity of water goes down, the quality usually goes down," explains the director of the Consorci.
The shock plan contemplates the installation of an active carbon system in the Empuriabrava Drinking Water Treatment Station (ETAP) and another for Torrent, which is supplied by an aquifer whose water conditions have deteriorated. The same system will be used to improve the water at the Montfullà (Gironès) water treatment plant.
Finally, there will also be actions aimed at preventing water from escaping. In this sense, a waterproofing treatment will be applied to two upper supply tanks in Coloera and Portbou. A performance valued at 462,600 euros.
