Benalmádena City Council will save almost 1.5 million cubic meters of water per year
Benalmádena has hosted the celebration of the fifth Mesa Contra la Sequía (Table Against Drought), which has once again brought together the heads of water management companies such as Emabesa and Acosol, different municipal departments that are related to this resource and the councilor for Water, Environment, Parks and Gardens and Cleaning, Juan Olea. The meeting highlighted the savings to be achieved by the municipality, the results of which are already beginning to be noticed in recent months.
Monday, 15 de January de 2024 | Water NewsThus, through Emabesa, the municipal irrigation meters have been sealed, a total of 275 meters that imply a saving of 360,000 cubic meters of water annually, equivalent to 4.4% of the total water consumption in the municipality. From the first mayoral decree to the present, the measures have already yielded the first results. Thus, the cuts in private meters in non-essential uses, which would affect irrigation and use of water for community pools, are also already noticeable and the forecast annual water savings reach 734,000 cubic meters, which would amount to 8.4% of total consumption.
Another of the data put on the Table Against Drought has been the increase in two points of the performance of water supply networks in the municipality, which "implies a significant saving of water," explained the mayor Juan Olea. "From 81% performance, we have raised two percentage points, this means 400,000 cubic meters of water savings per year with only this measure, the data is very important for Benalmadena as this is equivalent to municipal irrigation for a whole year in the municipality thanks to a good performance of our network avoiding unnecessary leaks."
Olea has stressed that many measures are being promoted, thanking Endesa for their efforts, as well as Acosol, because "the situation and risk of continued lack of rain is a reality for everyone". "We are seeing very severe supply cuts in the Eastern Costa del Sol and we have to continue to implement measures that allow us to preserve this basic and necessary resource," he said.
For all this, he added, "we are not only going to stay in this particular moment, which at some point will end, this City Council will work, as requested by Mayor Juan Antonio Lara, throughout the legislature for Benalmádena to be a sustainable city and promote the use of other alternatives such as reclaimed water, fighting since we came to local government relentlessly to reduce the consumption of drinking water where we can, working in a coordinated manner between all departments."
Another initiative that is already underway is the remodeling of various traffic circles that will allow replacing natural grass with artificial grass and, at the same time beautify them, avoiding a use of drinking water for maintenance tasks, a matter that implies more savings that will add to the data already available.
Not surprisingly, Olea, who has thanked the citizenship that is already taking measures in their homes, and has praised the good result of some awareness campaigns, has again stressed the need for neighbors and visitors to maximize water savings in their homes because this will allow further progress in a very complicated situation where the restrictions imposed against drought to the Consistory are hard, being indispensable also the individual commitment, beyond reducing the pressure in certain areas of the municipality or that the administrations try to promote these measures that work and save, because "the risk of new restrictions exists, despite all efforts, although we fight tirelessly to avoid by all means that the restrictions end up affecting and limiting water consumption at home".