Water Desalination Plants in Andalucia |
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Water Desalination Plants in Andalucia
Desalination of Seawater
The following plants are constructed. The table below shows their capacity, status and use in 2022. The reverse osmosis process consumes electricity (4.5 kWh per m3.) and the approximate cost of the water produced is 0.80€ m3.
| Location | *Capacity (hm3 / year) | State | Use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marbella | 20* (6) | In Service | Drinking water |
| El Ejido | 35 | In Service | Drinking water & Irrigation |
| Almeria | 20 (17.5) | In Service | Drinking water |
| El Ejido (Alberan) | 22 | Rehabilitation | Irrigation |
| Carboneras | 42 | In Service | Drinking water & Irrigation |
| Cuevas del Almanzora | 20 (zero) | Out of use since 2012 |
Drinking water & Irrigation |
| Malaga city (El Atabal) | 60 (54) | In Service | Drinking water |
*Source 'Plan Hidrológico de las Cuencas Mediterráneas 2022-2027' Anejo VI p62
Strangely, the capacities in the plan do not correspond to actual capacities revealed when enlargement plans were published in 2023/4. (Actual capacity in brackets)
Rio Verde Marbella desalination plant
The Rio Verde Marbella desalination plant was a project of the Jesus Gill era following the 1991/5 drought. It was inaugurated in 1997 with a production capacity of 20 hm3 per year. Following a reorganisation the plant was handed over to ACOSOL in 2003 and put into full time service in 2005. The plant takes 124.000 m3 per day of sea water from the mouth of the Rio Verde. The plant filters then desalinates the sea water (40g salt per m3) into fresh water (0.40g per m3) on 7 frameworks supporting a total of 297 pressure tubes with membranes producing 56.000 m3 per day of desalinated water. Salts and CO2 are added to the fresh water before being pumped to the Rio Verde water treatment station where the desalinated water is mixed with rainfall water stored then emitted from the rivers La Concepcion reservoir. 68.000 m3 of brine water is pumped back to the coast every day and discharged 350m offshore and at a depth of 7m on a sand/gravel seabed. The electric power consumption is 4.5 kWh per m3. ACOSOL 2018 documents explain that although the theoretical production is 20 hm3 per year in practice it is actually 15 hm3. However July 2023 the Junta de Andalucia and ACOSOL announced an agreement to invest 20m€ to double the plant's capacity from 5 to 10 (or 12 hm3) per year by summer 2024. This discrepancy in reported production is due to the reduction in efficiency of old membranes that have never been replaced since the plant was opened. The current production details were further complicated when in December 2023 President of the Mancomunidad of Municipios of Western Costa del Sol announced that the Marbella desalination plant would increase production from 8 to 12 hm3 with the replacement of membranes which were already being fitted. The plant would soon increase production to 20 hm3 under the Regional Government's fourth anti-drought plan which includes for 'portable' desalination units. The cost of desalinated water is reported as 0.80 € per m3.
El Atabal, Malaga city desalination plant
The desalination plant at El Atabal, Malaga city was constructed in 2005 from an investment of 64 million euro, commissioned by the Ministry of the Environment and Rural and Marine Affairs through the state-owned company Acusur/Acuamed. The plant produces 165,000 m3 of treated water per day ( equivalent to 60 hm3 per year) which is piped into the Guadalhorse water treatment works. Thanks to the water produced by this plant, the Málaga city did not suffer water shortages or restrictions during the drought of 2004/7. The electric consumption of the running plant is 12,000 kW. This consumption is 0.75 to 1.30 kWh per m3 of desalinated water produced depending on the sea water salt content.
As means of comparison the largest desalination plant in Europe is Torrevieja (Alicante) which produces 72 hm3 per year. the second largest is at El Prat de Llobregat outside Barcelona which produces 60 hm3 per year.
Villaricos desalination plant in Cuevas de Almanzora
The Villaricos desalination plant in Bajo Almanzora was rendered out of use following a flood in Septemeber 2012. A new plant is to be constructed see below.
Almería desalination plant.
The joint venture Aima Ingeniería-Ecoagua Ingenieros was awarded the contract in October 2024 for the technical design of the project, which will take 18 months to complete, at a cost of 495,302 euros. Taking into account the tendering period (six months) and the construction period (12 months minimum), the enlarged plant could be inaugurated at the end of 2027.
Estimates based on the population growth in Almería over the next few years, including the increase in summer demand, indicate the need to have a total production of 24.5 hm3/year, which would require increasing the seven frames of the desalination plant to ten. The project will have eleven units, with an estimated total production of 80,000 cubic metres per day at 90% capacity, or 26 hm3/yr.
Construction of the Almería desalination plant was completed in 2005 and the plant began regular operation two years later. Since then, the plant has been producing around 4,000 cubic metres of water per hour, with night-time pumping from Monday to Friday and continuous pumping at weekends. This means that the plant runs 88 hours a week to produce 18 hm3/year. The desalination plant, which draws water from 19 wells, has a nominal production capacity of 17.55 hm3 per year. The expansion of the Almería and Bajo Andarax desalination plant is one of the works included in the second drought decree approved by the regional government.
12-03-2023 Malaga's El Atabal desalination plant improvement works are complete.
The plant was visited by Carmen Crespo Agriculture councillor of the Junta de Andalucía. The improvement works which cost 2.3m € have resulted in a 10% increase in capacity of 6.9 Hm3. [It is probably maintenance work to revert the 10% loss of production caused by aging membranes, thus capacity is the 60 Hm3.
Future Desalination Plants
La Axarquia Desalination Plant
The central government has been advocating the need for a desalination plant in the Axarquia since May 2023. An agreement was reached with the regional government in August 2023. Both administrations signed a protocol in which the central government would finance the project, while the regional government would be responsible for providing the land once the site had been decided. It later emerged that the central government expected the regional government to manage the project and vice versa. The issue dragged on for a year.
In the end, the "customers" of the future plant stepped in and paid for and commissioned the preliminary project and the environmental impact studies to be submitted to MITERD (the national water authority). The drafting of this basic project began in September 2024. The process is to submit it to ACUAMED (a central government engineering consulting company) and the regional government in February 2025.
The next steps are an engineering service (tendered for in January 2025) for 80,626 euros, focused on verifying the preliminary project studies carried out by the future users of the plant. The time required to review the studies, projects and environmental impact assessment, and to launch the tender for the project and works is estimated at 18 months, taking the project to the end of 2026). Inauguration of the plant is not expected before 2029.
The 'clients' are a joint venture between the farmers and ACUAMED. This body is made up of the Junta Central de Usuarios del Sur del Guaro, which brings together the producers on the right bank of the Guaro river plan, and the Junta Central de Usuarios de la Axarquía, which brings together those on the left bank. ACUAMED is the Mancomunidad of the Town Halls of La Axarquía, through the public company Axaragua, which provides the upstream supply service to 14 of the 31 towns in the comarca. These are: Almáchar, Benamargosa, Benamocarra, El Borge, Comares, Cútar, Iznate, Macharaviaya, Moclinejo, Rincón de la Victoria, Vélez-Málaga, Totalán, Algarrobo and Torrox, with a total registered population of around 180,000 and 230,000 in high season, including visitors.
Initial production capacity of 25 hm3/year, which can be increased by a further 25 hm3/year". ACUAMED and the farmers will share the output of the plant, i.e. 50% for drinking water and 50% for irrigation, i.e. 12.5 hm3/year each. The Málaga City Council's engineering firm has identified three sites. One is the one initially proposed by the Town Hall, which was strongly opposed by the local residents; a second is close by, and a third (preferred) is in the Las Campiñuelas area of Vélez-Málaga, near the Caleta de Vélez exit on the A-7 Mediterranean motorway, next to the river Seco. The plant will require an investment of 100 million euros, financed by the central government and repaid by the users over 50 years.
Households in La Axarquía consume 22 hm3 per year, most of which comes from the La Viñuela reservoir and, to a lesser extent, from the Chíllar wells and, when they are operational, from transfers from the city of Málaga.
The Axarquia desalination project differs from the private desalination initiative promoted by the regional government since 2022. The government has not yet clarified whether it will continue with the administrative procedure to award the contract to one of the two remaining bidders, Magtel and Acciona.
Bajo Almanzora, Almeria Desalination Plant
The is a very similar project to the Axarquia desalination plant being carried out in Bajo Almanzora in Almeria. Constructed on the site of the old plant which was distroyed in a flood in 2012.
Estepona portable container desalination plants
The mayor of Estepona, Jose Maria Garcia Urbano, surprised everyone in November 2023 by announcing his plan in a Malaga forum of the innovative idea of tackling the water shortage by going it alone and commissioning a portable desalination plant at the mouth of the Rio Gastor in Estepona producing 7 hm3/yr. A second project was a desalination plant for the Rio Padrón boreholes. These had falen into disuse become they had become too saline to supply fresh water due to the lowering of the fresh water table. The projects and works were awarded to Hidralia, the municipal water company. The Padrón land was already owned by the Town Hall, and the capital and operating costs of the facilities would be added to local water bills (2€ per month was suggested) until 2042. It was hoped to have the project running by summer 2024.
The projects were well advanced by October 2024, with the pipeline to pump the waste brine from the desalination plant into the sea published in the BOJA on 07.10.2024. However, this "go it alone" project seems to have caused some problems with the other organisations and is awaiting the relevant approvals from various departments of different administrations, including the analysis of the desalinated water, the purification treatment to which the water will be subjected and the analysis of the water after treatment".
Acosol is the company with the experience of operating desalination plants on the Costa del Sol. However, as the project is 100% financed by Estepona, this would have an impact on the desalination fee paid by Estepona and the other ten municipalities to Acosol. The output of the plans is a drop in the ocean for Acosol. The Costa del Sol needs 90 hm3 of drinking water per year. These plants will initially supply 1 hm3/yr (drinking water for 15,000 people) from the Padron wells and later 2.8 hm3/year (drinking water for 42,000 people) from the sea via the River Gastor. This is the current project, which is modular and can be expanded to 9 hm3/yr.
The process of acquiring the necessary land at the mouth of the Castor River has been delayed. The equipment and control