Solving the deficit in sanitation networks suffered by the 31 municipalities of the Island requires an estimated investment of around 790 million euros. With half of this expenditure, Tenerife would reach “interesting levels” of connection to the sewer system and the problem of wastewater would be solved. The Tenerife Island Hydrological Plan (PHI) establishes that 505 million euros are necessary in terms of treatment and general collectors, of which 260 million are being executed. In this matter, the planning and carrying out of the works face the problem of geographical spread, which is to be solved through the municipal sanitation master plans, a document that sets out what to do in each case.
It is one of the conclusions of The importance of sanitation, a meeting organized by Aqualia and THE DAY held yesterday at the Hotel Médano, in Granadilla de Abona, with the participation of its mayor, José Domingo Regalado; Javier Rodríguez Medina, counselor of the Sustainable Development and Fight against Climate Change area of the Cabildo de Tenerife; Javier Davara, manager of the Insular Council of Waters of Tenerife; Fran Blanco, Aqualia delegate in the Canary Islands, and Diego Carballeira Díaz, Entemanser service manager in the municipality of Granada.
«In 24 months, Granadilla de Abona will be another. The transformation will be total »
The great transformation.
Granadilla de Abona serves as a prototype to evaluate the situation of the Island in this field and as a laboratory to apply solutions. Today the municipality has 62,000 inhabitants by law (the census grows at the rate of 1,300 inhabitants per year), but it lacks a treatment plant and a sanitation network. However, “in 24 months, Granadilla de Abona will be another,” said the mayor, José Domingo Regalado. During this period, it will have a larger sanitation network, the Los Letrasdos treatment plant and the Industrial Wastewater Treatment Plant (Edari) in the Polígono. “The transformation will be total and will reach the mediocrity.” This will be possible with an ongoing investment of close to 40 million euros from European, national, regional, island and municipal funds.
The lack of investment in sanitation for decades – municipal authorities fled from noise, dust, traffic cuts and general annoyances to citizens – is currently reversed due, as a priority, “to high social and environmental awareness »Which involves caring for the environment. “The treatment of wastewater plays a very relevant role in this,” says Javier Rodríguez, who leads “one of the best equipped ministries of the Council»: Sustainable Development and Fight against Climate Change.
By mid-2023 the figures will increase and 51 hectometres will be purified and another 30 will be regenerated
Agreement with Acuaes.
Last July 8, the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge and the Cabildo de Tenerife, together with the state-owned company Aguas de las Cuencas de España (Acuaes), signed “the largest agreement in the history of the Cabildo with the State”, with an investment of 170 million euros. “It will make it possible to end the dumping problem that we have on this Island.” Rodríguez Medina explained that “it is being done” with the development of five sanitation and purification systems. “One of them is in Granadilla, the municipality will change and promote a paradigm shift,” he reflected, ensuring that “we will comply with what is established by the European water directive.”
The Canary Islands is one of the regions of the European Union with the most sanctions for not treating water properly. «With this agreement, Tenerife will come out of that dishonorable podium ». It will do so with the system that is already in operation in the Southwest (Guía de Isora-Santiago del Teide) and that of Los Hinojeros, which is in the preliminary phase of faunal survey of the environment (raises the cost of the work) in which the treatment plant, pumping stations and collectors will be executed, serving both the midlands and the coast of Granada.
“It does not make sense to have the large collectors and treatment plants if water does not reach them”
Public and private.
“The development of infrastructures goes through public-private collaboration yes or yes”, defended Fran Blanco, Aqualia delegate in the Canary Islands, who completed the design outlined by the island councilor of the effort of the State and the Cabildo, noting that the chain includes “an urban development and a municipal contribution that, we know, it is making.” This is where Blanco had an impact on the materialization of public-private collaboration “to develop infrastructures as quickly as possible, due to their current need.” An urgency that is established “to preserve the environment and keep the beaches in good condition.”
The Island “knows what it has to do in sanitation and purification.” Recognizing the situation to find and manage a solution was Tenerife’s first success, according to the Ciatf manager. Javier Davara cited as the next success “the bet, 30 years ago, for the treatment of wastewater in regeneration.” The Island currently has 12 treatment plants in operation and soon there will be 15, when in 2017 it only had four. “Here we regenerate and we do it in an economically sustainable way”, since the cost is obtained from the farmers who benefit from the product. “Here, sanitation and purification entails preserving the environment, yes, but also generating in the agricultural sector.”
Granadilla de Abona receives an investment of 40 million in five works, including the treatment plant
The example of Granadilla.
In just 15 years, the census of Granada went from 33,000 inhabitants to about 66,000 floating (62,000 residents), which exposes the obsolescence of the local hydraulic infrastructure. This reflection of the head of the Entemanser service, Diego Carballeira. The works in progress on the treatment plant, the pumping stations and the collectors “will allow the midlands, the upper zone and San Isidro – the town with the highest population density – to efficiently channel the water to the Los Lawyers treatment plant” .
“The development of infrastructures goes through public-private collaboration yes or yes”
Reclaimed water.
If the mayor assured that Granadilla will experience a great change in sanitation during the next two years, the insular councilor for Sustainable Development defended that “the agreement with Acuaes will transform the Island.” Ambitious and with the regeneration of water as a variable to highlight, he argues that “technological development allows us to stop talking about wastewater and yes to talk about reclaimed water.” For the counselor, Javier Rodríguez Medina, in a climate emergency context such as the current one “it makes no sense to maintain the scheme to purify the waters, eliminate the pollutant load and take them through an underwater outlet.” The bet is «to convert the treated water into regenerated water and to use it in the primary sector. That is the circular economy and what we are working on ».
The awareness of society in the use of wastewater to maintain adequate water levels “has been around for a long time.” The demand derived from this fact “is the actions of the administrations and the execution of these works to maintain a comfortable place in which to live”, reflects the delegate of Aqualia in the Canary Islands, Fran Blanco.
Works of which all those involved are aware of annoyances. “Possibly they could cause harm from a political point of view”, as the work is scheduled to take place in a period that includes municipal elections (May 2023), “but society has changed. Dozens of years ago, on the coast of Tenerife, we saw tubes connected to the beach from houses. That is no longer tolerated by the citizens, “the mayor resolved.
«If we purify and dump the sea, nobody sees it and we comply, but all the works we are talking about are not only to purify, but to generate water and can transform the appearance of the Island “, reflected Javier Davara. In Tenerife, 11 cubic hectometres (one billion meters) are regenerated every day “and in a few years we will double that”. This water is distributed among farmers, golf courses, tourist centers and public green areas, among others. A water that moves from Santa Cruz de Tenerife to Santiago del Teide.
Investing in sanitation networks is part of the paradigm shift and social transformation
Complicity.
Completing the sanitation network throughout the island “requires that the 31 municipalities and the Tenerife Island Water Council be able to join forces.” Otherwise, “we will replicate the problems we have suffered so far,” said the island councilor, who celebrated the awareness of municipal councilors “about the need to invest in developing the sanitation network of their municipalities. It does not make sense to have the large collectors and treatment plants if water does not reach them. We would not be solving anything.
Javier Rodríguez rescued the words of the water delegate in the Canary Islands and the mayor of Granadilla to allude to social transformation and the need to report and criticize the public and before the competent administrations –especially using the channel of social networks–, of those contrary actions to sustainability.
“Here, sanitation and purification entail preserving the environment and generating irrigation water”
Edaru and Edari.
Differentiating wastewater of urban origin and those of industrial origin is a nuance that Javier Rodríguez alluded to. “Yes, urban waters are the biggest problem, but not the only problem.” Hence, the Ciatf is currently running an industrial treatment plant in the Güímar Valley as part of the “integral water cycle.”
Reality and optimism.
On the immediate future, Javier Davara used data: «In 2017, this Island had a purification capacity of 24 cubic hectometres and 12 of regeneration; by mid-2023 there will be 51 hectometres of purification and 30 of regeneration ”. The Ciatf manager emphasized that “now it’s time to get the waters to come. In Granadilla it will be easy due to its orography, it will be enough to pump up to the treatment plant, but there are others who will have to develop their sanitation networks ».
“We work education to build a culture of sustainable sanitation”
Regeneration as an activity that “will guarantee the future recharge of underground aquifers, which have been highly overexploited in recent years”, the channeling of rainwater “to reuse it within the water cycle process” and “awareness and education from childhood to exponentially build the culture of sustainable sanitation” were other aspects introduced in the debate by Diego Carballeira Díaz, Entemanser service manager in Granadilla de Abona.
From a business perspective, Fran Blanco, Aqualia delegate in the Canary Islands, concluded that in terms of sanitation, “we are progressing well, at a good pace. We are in a sweet moment, with many works ».
The transformation begins
«The most important transformation in the history of Granadilla de Abona begins». The mayor, José Domingo Regalado, defended that his is a municipality “called to be one of the most important in the Canary Islands.” In his opinion, “if we make progress on this matter, which is being done, we will see it in 24 months, the citizens will see it.” All with permission from the pandemic. Of course, “we must change the Law of Contracting with the Public Administration, because with the current system we are doomed to collapse,” he concluded.
