The Plenary approves the new Water Infrastructure Works Plan, which includes a desalination plant to cope with the drought.

The proposal contemplates the temporary extension of the period of the improvement fee included in the water bill since 2006, without creating any new fee and, therefore, without increasing the cost of the water bill.

The Plenary of the Corporation of the City Council of Estepona has approved the new Water Infrastructure Works Plan and the redistribution of the program of works planned in the current water infrastructure improvement fee for the period 2021-2030, incorporating new necessary actions; as well as the temporary extension of this fee until the end of the concession of the public water and sewerage service, which is carried out by the company Hidralia, which will occur in 2042.

This is a measure derived from the declaration by the Junta de Andalucía, last October, the entry into a situation of severe shortage and exceptional drought in the western Costa del Sol system. These works include actions in water catchments, in guarantee of water supply, with the project of acquisition and installation of containerized seawater desalination plant with photovoltaic panels system; as well as actions in the remote control and telecontrol and water quality of the water supply services and in drinking water pumping stations. All the works foreseen until 2042 in this plan are estimated at a total of 43 million euros, amounts that will be adjusted at each moment with the corresponding execution projects. All this does not exclude that the City Council may obtain other supramunicipal financing for the execution of these projects.

These projects will be carried out according to their necessity and urgency to guarantee the supply and service to the citizens. In this sense, to undertake as quickly as possible the installation of the desalination plant is a priority within this municipal action plan. In this regard, the municipality of Estepona already has the project prepared by the company Hidralia, which consists -initially- in the construction of a containerized desalination plant at the mouth of the river Castor.

It is a water treatment plant that reduces costs and implementation time as it consists of prefabricated modules. Thus, this infrastructure could be available in a short period of months and could be in operation in the short term, if the necessary authorizations are obtained. In addition, it will be powered by photovoltaic panels that will make it possible to achieve practical energy self-sufficiency during the entire water treatment process. It envisages an original production of 20,000 m3/day, which can be increased to 30,000 m3/day in the future. For this purpose, two 10,000 m3 modules will be installed, which can be expanded with a third one.

This fee for the improvement of hydraulic infrastructures, which was already included in the water bill of the residents since 2006, entails a budgetary availability obtained by applying a proportional price to the cubic meters of water consumed in order to carry out infrastructure works for the supply of drinking water in the municipality of Estepona. The proposal of temporary extension of the period of the improvement fee until the end of the concession of the service provided by Hidralia, in 2042, maintains the costs and amounts to be borne by users for water consumption, not creating, therefore, any new fee that would increase the bill.

The revenues from this charge are final and have been used in the last decade to carry out the works included in the master plans for the drinking water supply and sewerage services. Among these actions, the recent execution of the work to increase the drinking water storage capacity of the Las Mesas reservoir, which has already been completed and which will provide the city with greater water independence, having generated the largest water reservoir in the city, with a new installation that has increased the capacity of the old existing reservoir by a factor of 15.