Climate Action 2009-2010

ACUAMED DESALINATION INVESTMENTS
} Performing framework: Mediterranean basins
} Desalination investment: €1,000 millions until 2011
} Total projects: 18
} Water production: 479hm 3 per year.
} European Union: co-finances all projects.
} Torrevieja and Águilas, major plants in the
Mediterranean European region: €567 millions in
investment, 420,000m 3 desalination water per day
The Águilas desalination plant.
of which are dedicated to high performance crops, is
ensured with the use these new resources.
From the 32 desalination plants foreseen, 11 are already
in service, representing an investment of €795 million
and a production of 325hm 3 of water. The most recent
example is Barcelona’s desalination plant – promoted
by the Ministry for the Environment, Rural and Maritime
Affairs, and carried out by the Autonomous Community
– that started its production of 200,000hm 3 a day (60hm 3
per year) last summer in order to supply drinking
water for the city’s inhabitants as well as those in its
surrounding areas.
DESALINATION IN ACUAMED
Acuamed invests almost a third of its budget, which
means more than €1,000 million until 2011, in the
development of 18 desalination projects that are to
reach a total production of 479hm 3 per year. All of these
projects are carried out with European Union funds,
only given to projects that fulfil the highest standards of
environmental caring.
“
The desalination
programme of the Ministry
for the Environment, Rural
and Maritime Affairs, consists
of a total of 32 plants, which
generate a total amount of
860hm 3 quality water per year,
which is enough to meet the
requirements of more than
10 million people
“
The plants managed by Acuamed use the desalination
procedure known as inverse osmosis. It consists in
taking the seawater and filtering it by using sand filters
and very fine membranes, which separate drinking
water from seawater. Seawater, with higher salt
concentration levels, is returned back to the sea once
it is diluted by diffusers in order to prevent harm to
the marine environment. Technological developments,
amongst other efficiency improvements, have led, in
only ten years, to the reduction of energy consumption
in these plants by half.
The high quality of water obtained through these
procedures allows it to be used for human consumption
or irrigation of all kinds of crops, especially those
with a high demand for water supply. For this reason,
these procedures are also the adequate solution for
guaranteeing the continuity of economic activities such
as specialised intensive agriculture or tourism, since
coast settlements with the highest flow of summer
visitors also face a high water supply demand.
Amongst the most relevant projects that Acuamed is
currently developing are: Torrevieja (Alicante); Águilas/
Guadalentín (Murcia); and Cuevas de Almanzora
(Almería) – all of which are in the advanced construction
phase. Likewise in process are the works at Cabanes/
Oropesa(Castellón); Sagunto (Valencia); Mutxamel/El
Campello (Alicante); and Campo de Dalías (Almería).
The desalination plants in Torrevieja (Alicante) and
Águilas/Guadalentín (Murcia) will be, once completed
and as soon as they start functioning, the largest in the
Mediterranean European region. They both represent
a total investment of €567 million, and they have a
production capacity – altogether – of 420,000m 3 per day
(80hm 3 per year for the Torrevieja plant – designed to
produce 50 per cent more if needed – and 70hm 3 per year
for the Águilas/Guadalentín plant). The Torrevieja plant
directs half of its production to the drinking supply and
the other half to irrigation. This plant is conceived with
two main goals in mind: to guarantee the water needs
in the Segura Basin, complementing the contributions
made from the Tajo Segura transfer; and to relieve the
current overexploitation of underground water sources.
Likewise, the new plant of Águilas/Guadalentín (Murcia)
guarantees the water supply in the Alto Guadalentín
region as well as correcting the overexploitation,
nowadays unsustainable, of the area’s aquifers.
In a nutshell, it is all about providing more efficient,
sustainable and agreed upon solutions for more rational
water consumption, something that belongs to society
as a whole.
Enquiries
ACUAMED
Albasanz, 11 28037 Madrid
Spain
Tel: +34 91 423 45 00
Website: www.acuamed.es
SPECIAL FEATURE 181
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