The Agencia Andaluza del Agua (AAA) has taken the first step in the long process involved in the building of the first water treatment plant for Nerja by publishing the preliminary information regarding the infrastructure of this project.
The report is available to the general public for the next 30 days and can be viewed in the following places:
- Distrito Hidrográfico del Mediterráneo, Paseo de Reding 20, Málaga
- Agencia Andaluza del Agua, Sevilla
- Nerja Town Hall
The plant is to be built on land in Fuente del Baden in an area known as Aguahierro. The land was sold to the Junta de Andalucía for the purpose of building the plant several years ago.
The draft report provides for a purification plant with the capacity to treat 25,000 cubic metres of water per day, equivalent to a population of 40,000, and expandable to 100,000 cubic metres at a later date. The cost of the project is estimated at €37.2 million.
The Councilor for Infrastructure, José Alberto Tomé, has expressed concern that the plant could fairly quickly become ‘too small’. He also criticised the latest delays in starting the project, pointing out that it should have actually been started in 2009.
As it currently stands, the tendering process is scheduled to begin in the early part of 2010 and, if all goes to plan and there are no further delays, the plant could be operational by the end of 2012.
The EU set a deadline for all municipalities with over 5,000 population to have their own water treatment plants by the year 2006. This, however, has now been revised to 2015.