Water is the main natural resource consumed at airport facilities, mainly linked to watering green areas, cleaning, fire service, execution of works and human consumption. It is used every day by the thousands of people who pass through the airport facilities, whether they are passengers, employees or any other user.
Aware of the limitations caused by the water deficit in which we find ourselves, Aena works to achieve sustainable water management and fight against the impact that climate change is having on its availability, as well as to minimize the effect that its scarcity can cause from a social, economic and environmental point of view.
Aena's commitment to reducing the consumption of this valuable resource has led to the preparation of a strategic plan for water management at airports. In this regard, within its 2021-2030 Sustainability Strategy, it has a program dedicated to efficient water footprint, which includes innovative initiatives such as the implementation of automated leak detection systems, network maintenance and surveillance or improvement of consumption control systems that allow the rationalization of water.
Bearing in mind that part of the water used at airports is due to human consumption, Aena has installed automated systems in the toilets, with taps and sanitary cisterns that allow a controlled flow of this resource. The airport manager wants to achieve a 5% reduction in water consumption per passenger in 2026 compared to 2019, as well as increase this reduction to 10% savings per passenger in 2030.
Aena's main objective is to develop water management that ensures its availability and quality and is aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to which the company is fully committed. Thus, Aena carries out an integrated management of the water supply sources and the risks derived from climate change in order to increase the use of alternative water sources per passenger by 50% in 2026 compared to 2019, reaching 150 % increase in 2030.
The water consumed at the Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport comes from an external supply and from various wells located on the airport grounds. The one obtained from the public supply network is used for human consumption. Since 2017 and for a duration of 25 years, the airport has a concession to extract water from wells that it uses for the fluxor network, irrigation, cleaning the facilities and the fire network, after being treated in its facilities with a chlorination process. Aena also plans to reduce the extraction and dependencies of the deep aquifer wells to optimize their integrity, promoting the use of reclaimed water within the water recovery cycle.
In the coming months, the water used for the airport terminals will no longer be withdrawn from the deep Delta aquifer. Instead, reclaimed water will be used for irrigation and sanitary cisterns obtained through a basic treatment pipe from the Prat water regeneration station, into which wastewater is also discharged. With this action, a consumption saving of about 120,000 m3 per year is expected, with a maximum flow of 1,000-1,200 m3 every day in the summer season.
Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport is located in a privileged enclave that gives it a special environmental value. Surrounded by natural spaces protected by the Natura 2000 Network, from north to south on the coastline of the municipalities of El Prat de Llobregat and Viladecans, forest areas alternate with wet-type habitats of community interest. This location configures it as an airport whose management protects these natural values thanks to a sustainable coexistence between the ecological objectives of the environment and those of an adequate airport activity.
In the hydrological area of the Llobregat Delta, Aena carries out conservation and renaturation work on the land it acquired to develop the environmental compensation included in the Environmental Impact Statement approved in 2002 for the expansion of the airfield of the current Master Plan . The commitments made made it possible to create new protected wetlands and establish actions to conserve water resources that the Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport has incorporated into its management lines.
Likewise, as established in the Environmental Impact Statement approved in 2002, with the aim of combating saline intrusion into the Delta aquifers, Aena carries out environmental actions on water with controlled extraction from coastal wells, as well as water transfer from the airport's drainage channels towards the surrounding lagoons, so that optimal levels of their water levels are maintained, the correct state of which is guaranteed with monthly analyzes that examine nearly one hundred parameters.
The planning of the actions related to the Environmental Impact Declaration of 2002 considered at all times the replacement of channels and the design of new channels in order to guarantee the capacity of the system as a whole without altering the hydraulic functioning of the Delta. For this reason, the airport was divided into three main basins, with a set of channels leading to three pumping stations. The western basin is connected to the Remolar lagoon, the central one drains into the La Roberta lagoon, and the eastern one supplies water to the L'Illa lagoon. These channels were also naturalized with autochthonous species to guarantee their proper integration and conservation work is regularly carried out on the fauna and flora that coexist with the airport environment.
