The Governing Council of the Junta de Andalucía has authorized the start of work on the Seawater Desalination Facility (IDAM) in Marbellaonce the Andalusian Executive had already approved its declaration of emergency, being an action that will put an end to the critical situation of this infrastructure due to functional and operational problems.
This performance was declared of interest to the Autonomous Community of Andalusia within the actions carried out to alleviate the effects of the drought, as reported by the Andalusian Government in a statement.
Now with the signature of the contract for a value of 2.85 million euros, begins this action “aimed at improving the quality of desalinated water, which will result in the elimination of any health risk by replacing four old hollow fiber membrane frames with two new spiral wound membrane frames” , they have specified.
Likewise, new pressure tubes will be addedthe rest of the existing elements will be adapted and the stainless steel collectors will be replaced so that they can continue to operate.
Additionally, a new second step frame will be installed which will allow “greater efficiency and better use of water by achieving that only 1.8% of the flow produced in the first step is rejected”.
On the other hand, the Governing Council has learned of the report on the evolution of the hydrological situation of Andalusia. In this way, in the seven days preceding the report, an increase of five cubic hectometres (0.04% more) of the dammed water in Andalusia was observed as a reflection of the latest rainfall.
The CEO of the public water company in charge of its management on the Western Costa del Sol and dependent on the Commonwealth of Municipalities, Acosol, Carlos Cañavate, declared last April that the Marbella water infrastructure “currently cannot reach its maximum performance, to its maximum capacity to contribute water to the network system, because it is very old and needs some type of investment to improve the production system”.
In this way, he assessed that “at the moment in which our system goes into urgencywe understand that one of the main measures that the Board will take is the modernization and improvement of certain racks of the current desalination plant on the Costa del Sol”, a measure that was finally adopted last May.