AMJASA will begin the first works to reuse water from the treatment plant next year
A group of farmers who would be willing to use this treated water, currently discharged into the sea through the Arenal outfall, have already signed up.
Thursday 15th December 2022 · Mike Smith
Source: XAD Carlos López
The municipal water company AMJASA is is starting work to develop a strategy to reuse water from the treatment plant rather than pumping it into the sea, generating what is technically called the integral water cycle. This comes after several years of being part of the series of announcements at the company’s annual review and will finally moved towards becoming a reality next year.
The project was announced by the company’s manager José Luis Henarejos during a meeting of the Observatori de Agua which was held last Monday, which also addressed the issue of flooding in the Arenal by revealing a proposal offered by experts to resolve the issue.
Related Link: Study proposes creation of lagoon to resolve flooding issues in the Arenal
But the possibility of reusing water from the treatment plant was also one of the main points of the meeting and Henarejos presented the progress of a plan which has been prepared by AMJASA and to which a group of farmers who would be willing to use this treated water, currently discharged into the sea through the Arenal outfall, have already signed up.
He added that AMJASA technicians have planned a distribution network which divides the Pla de Xàbia into two area, depending on the level at which they are located, so that the network of pipes that the company will create is fed by the treated water and distributed t the fields in the most efficient way possible. He stressed that the project would have “zero discharge” of both CO2 and the water itself and would use solar panel to power the necessary pumping system.
He explained that a group of farmers have already signed up to be part of the project and he hoped that more would sign up, although most of them currently take advantage of their own wells, irrigating their fields with water from the aquifer. He added that another potential customer sector could be gardens and it is possible that the treated water could be used to irrigate municipal green areas or even private ones.
The price at which farmers and other sectors will be expected to pay for the treated water is the key to the success of the proposal, although being a publicly-owned company, AMJASA should be able to assume a large part of the cost charged to its income statements and offer quality water for farmers in Xàbia to irrigate their fields and thus keep the Pla de Xàbia alive as well as agricultural sector, even though it has a minimal effect on the local economy.
He said that the project is planned to be developed over five years and announced that the company will be carrying out the first initial stages during 2023.
