Barcelona already relies on Europeâs largest desalination plant for domestic use to compensate over three years of below average rainfall that have led to a historic drought made worse by climate change. In February, Cataloniaâs regional government declared a drought emergency for much of the surrounding region.
Barcelona uses a water desalination and filtration system to meet its water needs. Reservoirs serving 6 million people in central and northern Catalonia, including Barcelona, ââare only at 18% of capacity.
Last month, the hotels pooled resources together and bought a mobile desalination plant worth 1.5 million euros, however, they still needed official permission by the authorities in order to operate it.
The desalination plant would extract water from under the beach rather than from the sea. It has a capacity of 50 cubic metres per hour and could be ready to be operational in May.
The state has confirmed a consortium of Spanish firm ACCIONA and engineering company Jacobs Group have been selected to design, build and operate the $2.8 billion Alkimos desalination plant.
The works will include the expansion of the plant, which will increase its production capacity from 80 cubic hectometres to 120.
The Torrevieja desalination plant was conceived to produce 40 hectometres for urban supply and 40 for irrigation communities. It has been distributing flows since approximately 2013, at first with just marginal demand, but now the demand has almost doubled.
According to 2022 data from the International Desalination Association, 22,800 desalination plants can supply 110 million cubic meters of fresh water per day; in 2017, there were 18,000 of them, generating around 97 million cubic meters. They provide some 300 million people with drinking water and support agriculture in arid countries and mining industries. [âŠ]
According to 2022 data from the International Desalination Association , 22,800 desalination plants are capable of supplying 110 million cubic meters of fresh waterÂ
Spanish companies such as Abengoa and Ayesa have constructed the worldâs largest reverse osmosis desalination plant in Saudi Arabia, operational since last December, serving the water needs of approximately 3,000,000 people.
Aid totalling âŹ2,190 million will be invested to combat the consequences of the current drought with the aim of increasing water resources. Although the Government passed the decision for a desalination plant, it did not specify the area in which it would be built.