Having a complete water purification system and avoiding discharges into the sea has a cost that, in the case of Granadilla de Abona, will go from the current two euros paid per year for the sewage and water purification fee to a total of eight, according to the calculation made by the Corporation within the framework of its objective of zero discharges for the year 2025, as explained by the councilor for the Municipal Public Services and Ecological Transition area of the City Council, Marcos Antonio Rodríguez.
In recent years, the municipality has been suffering numerous beach closures due to episodes of bathing water contamination recorded in the analyzes carried out, a situation that is intended to put an end to an investment that, currently, exceeds 40 million euros in the Los Letrados treatment plant, which will come into operation in 2024; the wastewater treatment and pumping station (Etbar) of Ensenada Pelada; the industrial wastewater treatment plant (Edari) of the industrial estate, and the median collectors of Charco del Pino and Granadilla and pumps and drives from the coast.
The first step in which work is being done is the transfer of the management of this entire system to the Insular Water Council, so that it does not have a purely municipal character, as occurs in other places, where the purification infrastructures, and among them The emissaries depend on the town councils.
“This is going to be a big change. From having two outfalls we are going to have none,” explains the mayor, who assures that those that currently exist, located in front of Pelada beach and in Los Abrigos, “will remain as simple spillways, which are always necessary. All of this will mean a zero waste situation in the municipality,” adds Marcos Antonio Rodríguez.
“The treatment plant would be in testing throughout the year 2024 and, subsequently, it will come into operation – he warns -, which will save citizens as a whole 650 euros in sanctions imposed by the European Union” on Spain in a ruling for the discharges. to the sea of untreated water.
However, and although the rate is expected to increase from two to eight euros, the mayor explains that this cost will be lower the more people there are connected to the network and, therefore, what the City Council pays annually to the Island Council of Aguas de Tenerife (Ciatf) is distributed among more taxpayers.