Desalination plant working at full capacity to meet insatiable thirst of Xàbia’s villas
Water consumption has increased by 20% as municipal water company calls for common sense amidst a drought situation.
It has been reported that Xàbia’s desalination plan has switched to full capacity operation, producing 28,000 cubic metres of drinking water per day to meet the demand of summer occupancy in the town. However, the supply is not yet under threat of water shortages as the municipal water company AMJASA balances its sources enough to avoid overexploitation. But, as water consumption continues to increase as the summer season kicks in, the company is seeking help from residents and visitors to use water responsibility.
The ongoing drought situation in the Marina Alta – the region is currently in the ’emergency’ phase for water shortages – has not yet affected Xàbia fully, although the municipality is still is in the ‘alert’ phase, just one level below. In addition to the desalination plant, AMJASA has five wells in Pedreguer and has balanced both sources, groundwater and desalinated water, to maintain good levels of supply.
However, it warns that this isn’t an excuse to become complacent in the use of water and CEO Josep Lluís Henarejos stressed that water consumption has skyrocketed in the midst of increasing drought conditions and that there was a urgent need to stop wasting water, especially out in the urbanisations of villas with gardens and swimming pool, such as Tossalet, Montgó and Portitxol.
A study has shown that each household in the working-class neighbourhood of Thiviers, for instance, uses between 300 and 400 litres of water each day. The average daily use per person on a national scale is 133 litres which, when it is considered that the average home has 2.5 people, works out at 332.5 litres a day. So the neighbourhood has expected consumption levels.
However, the demand increases dramatically in the urbanizations where there are peak consumption levels of 4,000 litres per day per household, mainly at night when the garden sprinklers are switched on as well as through the filling of swimming pools, of which there are some 12,000 in Xàbia.
Although the CEO of AMJASA assured that in the scenario that Xàbia climbed into the ’emergency’ level in August, it would do so at a time when the end of summer season was approaching and the demand for water will be beginning to drop, he called for residents to observe daily water-saving actions, such as turning off the tap whilst brushing teeth and reducing the time that automatic irrigation systems operate, adding that a reduction in water use by those who habitually use more water than normal would benefit the whole town and make it an example of water-use efficiency.
