The expansion of the Blanes desalination plant, a "strategic" infrastructure to alleviate future drought episodes, will allow the current water treatment capacity to be multiplied by four, from 20 to 80 hm3 each year. The infrastructure will cost 287 million euros, which will be fully borne by the Ministry for Ecological Transition. Works could begin in 2026, and the plant will be at full capacity in 2030. The water resource should respond to the long periods of lack of rain that experts are convinced will be repeated more and more often. "It won't take another fifteen years to suffer an episode like the current one again (the last one was in 2008); we need to prepare the country", said David Vila, director of the Ter-Llobregat Water Supply Agency (ATL) yesterday. An area that includes 5.5 million inhabitants, the majority of Barcelona and the metropolitan area.
The new plant will be built on land adjacent to the current infrastructure and will have the same treatment capacity as El Prat. Two installations, which, according to Vila, have been "key" to delaying the fin scenario due to drought by up to six months.
The lack of rain is pushing both equipment to the limit. The one in Blanes, inaugurated in 2002, has been operating continuously since March at 100% capacity. A fact that had never happened in more than twenty years of activity.
