The Ministry of Environment has apparently cleared the way for the tender process for the water treatment plant in Nerja to begin later this year after it was decided to break the project up into distinct phases.
The Central Government (Department of Coasts, Madrid) objected to existing plans which called for an underwater pipeline off the Nerja coast, specifically off Burriana beach. A proposal by the Andalucian Water Agency to carry out the project in phases, excluding the pipeline, appears to have been accepted.
The pipeline issue will be resolved at a later stage, hopefully. Nerja remains the only point along the Málaga coast without an integrated sanitation system.
The documentation, including the latest technical reports, is now in Madrid and it is hoped that in the coming months the project can be posted in the Official Gazette and the tendering process can begin.
The question of the pipeline still has to be resolved as, without it, the plant will not be able to function. This is not, of course, the first time in the past four decades that the construction of a new sewage plant has been ‘imminent’, but let us hope it is the last.