SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Oct. 11 (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Cabildo de Tenerife, through the public company Balsas de Tenerife (Balten), has carried out a comparative study of the irrigation water supplied between 2018 and 2021, adding the supply made in the first half of 2022.
In light of its results, the island’s president, Pedro Martín, indicates that “reclaimed water will exceed 60 percent of the supply for the island’s agriculture this year, which demonstrates the importance of the investments in purification and desalination that carried out and that have a budget of more than 200 million euros”.
Martín emphasizes in a note that the study reflects the importance that the supply of reclaimed water has taken on for agriculture in the last three years.
“In fact, it is estimated that in 2022 there will be more than 20.4 million cubic meters of irrigation water, of which 12.5 will be reclaimed water,” he says.
For his part, the island councilor for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Javier Parrilla, explains that in 2021 a total supply of 19,439,717 cubic meters was reached, “when in the previous mandate only 14,309,310 cubic meters were supplied in 2018”.
In 2021, therefore, an additional 5.1 million cubic meters of irrigation water were supplied, highlighting that the maximum total volume of stored water on the island is 5,006,132 cubic meters.
Of the 19.4 million cubic meters of water supplied in 2021, 52.19 percent were reclaimed water (10,146,737 cubic meters).
However, in the first half of 2022 this figure increased to 61.6 percent, thanks to the implementation in the northeast of the island (mainly Tegueste, Tejina and Valle de Guerra) of the irrigation supply with reclaimed water.
ALL QUALITY STANDARDS
Javier Parrilla also emphasizes that the reclaimed water that is distributed among farmers in Tenerife meets all the quality standards set by the Ministry of Health for drinking water, and this was corroborated by three analyzes requested by Balten to an independent laboratory, which is certified by Aenor’s quality standards.
In this sense, the councilor is convinced that “the strategy established by the Cabildo de Tenerife to bet on reclaimed and/or desalinated water is helping the island to develop with greater energy efficiency, generating wealth and taking steps along the way of the circular economy.
Among the actions carried out by the Cabildo de Tenerife in this area, the works of the Brackish Water Desalination Station (EDAS) for the treatment of purified water from Adeje and Arona stand out, which have an insular investment of 8.7 million euros .
The objective of this action is to take advantage of one hundred percent of the urban wastewater generated in both municipalities to produce quality reclaimed water, which will increase the volume of reclaimed water treatment by 16,500 cubic meters per day. In this way, the station will provide a total of 25,000 cubic meters of regenerated water per day.
“We are immersed in changing the irrigation water model on the island, and we will not only benefit the agricultural sector, but we have also shown that the more reclaimed water we use in agriculture, the more quality water is released to supply our homes” Javier Parrilla concludes.
