Hermasillo desalination plan rejected

The water commission for the Mexican state of Sonora (Comisión Estatal del Agua – CEA) has apparently rejected the idea of a desalination plant for the state capital Hermosillo.

BN Americas quoted CEA’s director of hydro-agriculture infrastructure, Antonio Cruz, on 1 April 2011 as saying that the proposal for a desalination plant would prove prohibitively expensive compared with the alternative of a pipeline from Novillo.

The desalination plant would have been built in Cochorít, Guayamas, and the desalinated water would have had to be pumped up 220 m via five pumping stations. The pipeline would have been a similar length to the Novillo-Hermasillo pipeline.

D&WR reported in November 2011 that the national water agency Conagua was looking at a different 17,280 m³/d desalination project in Guayamas to improve the quality of life for the residents of the coastal municipalities of Guaymas and Empalme. Construction of the plant is subject to a technical feasibility study.