The South reclaimed water pipe, the almost 70 kilometer pipeline between Santa Cruz and Valle San Lorenzo (Arona) that has just been turning 30marked a before and after in the irrigation of crops in the South and, as explained to this newspaper by the former Councilor for Agriculture of the Cabildo Wladimiro Rodríguez Brito, was a pioneer in Spain, “because they began to irrigate a very higher than the amount allocated by the Region of Murcia at that time”.
The professor and former counselor recalls that, before the South channel, there were small “oasis” in the Barranco del Infierno (Adeje), and in the Barranco del Río (Granadilla). “A very important step was taken to bring water to the area where there were more problems, with a considerable decrease in the galleries and the great urban and tourist expansion,” he explained.
Rodríguez Brito, who highlighted the work of ULL professor Sebastián Delgado and his team, pointed out that in the early 1990s the use of treated sewage for the fields generated social rejection and a study was commissioned that recommended its use. for banana plantations and golf courses, but not for vegetables or potatoes.
“That historic work, of which we have to feel proud, which supplies the lower area of Arona, Arico, Granadilla and Fasnia, was designed to irrigate an area of 1,000 hectares of banana trees in the Las Galletas area at one time when the water problems for tourism and agriculture began”, indicated the expert, who highlighted that Tenerife was for years the national spearhead in volume of treated water.
Rodríguez Brito regretted that the level of reuse “is far from 20%” and described as “very worrying” that Tenerife, with a million inhabitants, “barely reuses” its sewage. “It is a very serious issue, we cannot continue throwing urban water into the sea, we must give it a new use,” he stated. In addition, he criticized the delay of the treatment plant like the one in Valle de Güímar and was in favor of building a second canal for the South.
After warning of the deterioration of the water galleries – “some have lost more than half the flow they had a few years ago” – he wondered how it is possible that “so much drinking water is wasted” on the Island and recalled that “there are networks urban cities that lose 50%”.
The water pipe between the capital of Tenerife and Arona, almost 70 kilometres, was the first water reuse system to come into operation on the Island, in 1993, and today it continues to be essential to guarantee the supply of farms in the South.
The Cabildo, through the public company Balten, began repair work on this pioneering pipeline in February, as it deteriorated in recent years. The works have a budget of 1.4 million euros and are expected to be completed in early 2024.
The works include the repair and improvement of the pipeline between the Buenos Aires pumping station, in Santa Cruz, to the Valle San Lorenzo pond, which consists of a first section of conduction of 6.63 kilometers to a reservoir in El Tablero , with a capacity of 15,000 cubic meters.
From there, the water is transported through a 62.22-kilometre pipeline, which runs practically parallel to the Autopista del Sur (TF-1) to the Valle de San Lorenzo reservoir, with a capacity of 250,000 cubic meters.
