Desalination capacity totalling 124 million m³/year lies ahead for Andelucía, according to a report produced by Agencia Andaluza del Agua for the Spanish Environment Minstry.
The report coincides with a call for tenders issued by regional water authority Acuamed for the second desalination plant on the western Costa del Sol at Mijas, near the Fuengirola river. Mijas will produce 55,000 m³/d.
The Andelusian agency’s report lists the following plants in addition to Mijas: Águilas para Pulpí, del Bajo Almanzora y del Campo de Dalías, Palomares, Adra, Balsa del Sapo and Costa del Sol/Málaga. Mijas is budgeted to cost € 70+ million (US$ 92+ million) and will be operational in 2010.
In addition, the report says that currently 30 million m³/y of reused water for irrigation is to the added to the 75 million m³/y Andelusia already uses, through projects at western Costa del Sol and Campo de Dalías. Future reuse projects are planned for the eastern Costa del Sol, Malaga city, the province of Almeria, Atlantic Basin and the river Guadalquivir, which will add another 80 million m³/y.
Meanwhile, in the same part of Spain, work has just begun on the 56,000 m³/d Balanegra desalination plant, and Acuamed has received official permission to connect the 240,000 m³/d Torrevieja desalination plant to the Mediterranean sea.