Redaccion
The Marina Baixa Water Consortium has reiterated today to the Júcar River Basin Authority (CHJ) the need to make investments in the region to ensure water supply and necessary infrastructure for the future. This request has been highlighted once again during the Extraordinary Board meeting of the organization, which took place this morning in Benidorm, chaired by the mayor of the city, Toni Pérez.
Jaime Berenguer, technical director of the Consortium, made this demand loud and clear during the presentation of the report on the water supply situation in the region. In order for these requests to be addressed, the Consortium representatives have requested a meeting with the Director General of Water «because it is clear that something is not working, and there are regions that cannot guarantee water supply without investments.» Therefore, Berenguer has indicated that it is «very important» to have these meetings with the Ministry «to provide solutions to this region.» Moreover, according to Berenguer, the meeting should also serve «to ensure that the new contributions become a reality; we need a guarantee.»
Diego Irles, representative of the CHJ at the General Board, wanted to make it clear that the river basin organization «we are not enemies of the Consortium» and that their priority is «to provide solutions by doing what we can and reaching as far as we can.» At this point, he considered the upcoming meeting with the Director General of Water as «positive» «to be able to implement everything necessary.»
Nevertheless, the Consortium has once again pointed out that «it is evident that there are areas with over 340 million investments funded by Europe and the Ministry, while in Marina Baixa, if we want a desalination plant – referring to the future plant in Benidorm – we have to pay for it ourselves.» Berenguer cited as an example that during this period of drought, «a new well should have been drilled by the Ministry, and we were told no.»
Regarding the situation report of Marina Baixa, Jaime Berenguer stated that the situation «remains serious» despite the recent rainfall events. However, surface reserves in the Guadalest and Amadorio reservoirs have increased, and aquifers such as Fuentes del Algar, Font de l’Arc, Beniardá, and Polop have been replenished. In terms of external contributions, if there are no rains this spring-summer, «another three cubic hectometers will need to be requested.»
Another issue addressed in today’s session was the status of the processing of the new desalination plant. The Consortium is confident that the bidding process for the project, valued at around 500,000 euros, will begin this year, for which «the legal and economic reports, which are necessary, are already close to being approved,» Berenguer reported.
It was also reported that there is an agreement about to be signed with the City Council that involves the free transfer of land to the Consortium and another cooperation agreement for the financing and construction of the plant so that the Conselleria contributes 50% of it, the Alicante Provincial Council 25%, and the Water Consortium the remaining 25%. The Consortium has also received the agreement for the free transfer from the Society of Projects for Digital Transformation to the Consortium of the facilities of the submarine outfall that was built when the construction of the desalination plant of Terra Mítica was planned at the beginning of the century.
The Marina Baixa Water Consortium has also unanimously approved a credit modification worth 2,833,987.77 euros to carry out the emergency project of the new well approved in December for an amount of 983,000 euros, as well as the amounts for the bidding of the Marina Baixa desalination plant project (500,000 euros). «These, and a modification of 45,000 euros, are the new amounts. The rest are for paying the increase in external flow supply, an agreement from 2023 that needs to be paid now, and some works approved also in 2023 that were not completed, the money went into surplus and now has to be paid once they are finished,» Berenguer clarified.
