SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Jan. 14 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Javier Parrilla, assures this Friday that irrigation water for farmers in the south of the island is guaranteed and details that currently the reclaimed water deposits are between 70 and 100%. 90% of its capacity and that of the reservoirs at 50%.
The person also responsible for the public company Balsas de Tenerife (Balten) points out that at times like the present, when the island is going through a dry winter and rainfall rates are low, “reclaimed water makes it possible to reach more stable levels, providing peace of mind for farmers by ensuring the irrigation of their crops”.
Specifically, the reservoirs in the south of Tenerife are at 66 percent of their capacity and those in the north at 43 percent, “although this index is affected by the Benijos reservoir, which is preparing to be waterproofed,” he details.
Currently, Tenerife’s agricultural water supply system consists of 21 storage ponds, with a total capacity of more than five million cubic meters. Of these, 3.4 million are stored on the northern slope and approximately 1.6 million on the southern slope.
For this reason, he indicates, “in this area of the island we have been betting, for years, on purified water, but now, with the new purification systems, we are already talking about regenerated water, applying tertiary treatments that allow us to obtain optimal conditions with certified health safety for any type of agriculture”.
In relation to the steps taken by the Cabildo in the matter of reclaimed water, the counselor details that with the expansion of the Adeje-Arona WWTP, the volume of treated water has doubled, while with the expansion of the Water Treatment Station Residuals (WWTP) of Buenos Aires in Santa Cruz, which is being carried out by the state government, is expected to reach 22,000 cubic meters of water per day.
In addition, remember that the island corporation with Acuaes plans to complete in the coming years, the new WWTP of the West of Guía de Isora Santiago del Teide, Arona Este-San Miguel, Acentejo, Granadilla de Abona and Valle de la Orotava, as well as the regional of the valley of Güímar and Granadilla.
ALMOST 80,000 CUBIC METERS
All this will allow the incorporation of about 72,000 cubic meters of reclaimed water per day on the southern slope of the island, and 5,000 cubic meters on the northern slope.
In addition, the expansion of the irrigation network with purified water in the southwest of the island, the first section of branch 4 of the Adeje and Santiago del Teide irrigation system, a water infrastructure that will benefit a cultivated area of 77 hectares and it is estimated that it releases 1.13 cubic hectometers of white water per year, the councilor points out.
Javier Parrilla also mentions that an agreement will be signed with the State Commercial Society for Agricultural Infrastructures (SEIASA) to complement the network of purified water for irrigation in the southwest of Tenerife, “so that the entire lower part of the midlands up to the coast south of the island can have high-quality reclaimed water”.
In that line, it indicates that these are the “firm steps” that the Cabildo is taking.
“Wastewater must become a resource for the agricultural sector, and we must stop talking about wastewater as a problem, and start talking about reclaimed water as the first option in the agricultural sector,” he says.
OTHER ACTIONS
The councilor highlights the different actions carried out by the current government team in this area since the beginning of the mandate, “such as the new facilities of the Fonsalía desalination plant, which are capable of producing 14,000 cubic meters of water per day, guaranteeing the quality and stability in the water supply”.
Parrilla explains that since it is of a very high quality, this water is mixed with others that are stored in the Lomo de Balo raft, in Guía de Isora, which has made it possible to exchange water from the Niágara gallery and through the Tágara canal and take it to Trevejos, “thus improving the quantity and quality of water for Balten subscribers”.
Similarly, new purification modules have been put into operation at the Adeje-Arona WWTP, doubling the treatment capacity, and desalination modules were added from Balten, which are responsible for lowering the conductivity of the water and converting it into regenerated water with high quality.
The counselor also highlights that the water from the Valle San Lorenzo reservoir, in Arona, “not only now has higher quality, but also more quantity is obtained”, and highlights the maintenance work carried out to obtain a greater flow in the Santa Cruz pumping station, “where until the arrival of the current government, no maintenance work had been carried out.”
