New drinking water tank in the pipeline
CONCERNS that not enough tap water can be supplied to Orihuela Costa to cope with all the new housing planned in the area were addressed by the council last week.
A deficit of about 10,500 cubic metres per day was revealed by opposition party Cambiemos in November, when they published a report by tap water supply company Hidraqua.
The company report said the infrastructure to transport drinkable water to the coast was already at 100% of its capacity with the current daily demand of about 28,500 cubic metres – but with the planned developments it would reach 39,300m3.
Hidraqua also noted there had already been a risk of the supply being shut off in 2017.
As such, councillor for heritage and town planning José Aix raised a motion at the full council meeting last Thursday for the town hall to declare it necessary to acquire the land required for Hidraqua to construct a new drinking water deposit.
This would need to at least as big and in addition to the existing 6,000 cubic metre deposit, in order to ensure the continuity of the service.
Such an installation was already foreseen in a 1998 water supply plan for Orihuela Costa, so would not require any land to be reclassified, noted Sr Aix, and the project and agreement with Hidraqua were approved by the local government committee (JGL) in 2001. The company asked the town hall in 2016 to start the proceedings to acquire the land needed, alongside the existing deposit by the irrigation channel.
To pass the motion, the leftcentre minority coalition council of the Socialist party and Ciudadanos required the support of the far-right councillor for Vox, as the Partido Popular abstained and Cambiemos remain opposed to what they see as excessive urban development of Orihuela Costa. Now that the declaration has been approved, proceedings can be started to expropriate the land from its current owner so that it can be ceded to Hidraqua.