Nine years in the making, an investment of 300 million euros and still no opening date for the Flagship Torrevieja Desalination Plant. One of the largest regional investments of recent years, constructed by the Zapatero government to replace the water from the Ebro transfer and nothing to indicate that it will ever be fully productive.
However the Ministry of the Environment insists the plant will soon be operational just as soon as it has resolved the two remaining problems that currently stand in it’s way; an adequate energy supply and customers who wish to purchase it’s water.
They Ministry say that it is already producing desalinated water for irrigation, which will increase depending on the needs of users, although they refuse to specify by whom it is currently being used.
To produce water at full capacity the plant still requires an electrical substation, which the Ministry acknowledges is currently under construction.
According to sources, at this time the plant receives power from a substation in San Miguel de Salinas through two lines of medium voltage.
But the biggest problem is that Acuamed, the company responsible for the operation of the plant, say they have no customers. Indeed the president of the Central Union of Irrigation Tajo- Segura, José Manuel Claver, said the water is of poor quality not suitable for many crops.
He also says the irrigation water currently being produced is far too expensive. Farmers are currently able to purchase a cubic meter of water for 0.14 euros through the transfer system currently in place while the same cubic metre from the plant will cost 0.50 euros plus tax and despite current grants it is still too expensive.
Similarly the municipalities that make up la Mancomunidad de Canales del Taibilla (MCT), the Organisation of Channels Taibilla of Alicante and Murcia, say that they will not buy the water from the Torrevieja plant. They also say that the problem is the high cost, which calculations suggest will be 35 % more than the price currently being paid.
Just last week Acuamed met with the mayors of Alicante, Elche, Murcia, Lorca and Cartagena as well as representatives of local farmers the Ministry in an effort to reach a settlement.
Filed under: http://www.theleader.info/article/40758/
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