The Catalan Water Agency (ACA), in agreement with the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB), plans the installation of photovoltaic panels in the seven wastewater treatment plants in the metropolitan area, in a plan that will be implemented over the next four years.
The measure is part of a budgetary action of 288 million euros to guarantee the adequate sanitation of wastewater in seven wastewater treatment plants and includes the infrastructures of Begues, Gavà-Viladecans, Sant Adrià del Besòs, el Prat de Llobregat, Montcada i Reixac, Sant Feliu de Llobregat and Vallvidrera.
Currently there are 536 treatment plants in service in Catalonia, which treat the wastewater of 97.1% of the population and, in the case of the seven facilities in the metropolitan area, the service is concentrated for an equivalent population of 6.3 million people.
The director of the ACA, Samuel Reyes, highlights that this is a planned strategy beyond the annual financing that existed until now and that is divided into 236 million euros to guarantee the operation of the treatment plants, 49.4 million for replacements and improvements of the facilities, and another 2.6 million for the drafting of new projects. "With the agreement, we analyze all the sanitation costs so that the AMB can carry out all the replacements and improvements that the infrastructures require, some of which are more than ten years old," he states in relation to the treatment plants and the kilometers of collectors.
In this sense, a significant portion of the resources will be allocated to the relocation of the Levante collector to a new location ---further away from the coast to avoid new incidents in case of sea storms--- and the replacement of the Morrot collector, currently very deteriorated. They will also serve to draft the construction projects for anaerobic sludge digestion facilities in the Besòs and Montcada i Reixac plants, which will allow the generation of renewable energy.
The Councilor for Climate Emergency and Ecological Transition of the Barcelona City Council, Eloi Badia, assured that water sanitation has a function consisting of treatment plants being able to discharge water into the river and that it does not go to the sea to guarantee future supply in the face of droughts. Hence the importance of establishing a good sanitation system because "it shields the issue of quality, preserves the environment and can also provide new resources in the face of the climate emergency," he added.
Both Reyes and Badia agreed to positively value the commitment to regenerated water, so that the waters coming out of the treatment plants are available in drought regimes, beyond desalination plants.