Benidorm City Council overwhelmingly accepted the Master Plan for the Promotion of Reclaimed Water Reuse, which was made by Hidraqua. The Poniente area has already started to carry out this idea. The Councillor for the Water Cycle, José Ramón González de Zárate, says that it would be carried out in stages and that the overall cost could exceed €25.79 million. The new distribution network will cut down on drinking water use by 15%, which is equal to 1.5 cubic hectometres a year.
After the plenary session, there will be a month-long public consultation period for the Plan. After that, any concerns will be dealt with. The councillor said in his speech that the document “plans, in an orderly manner, the implementation of specific reclaimed water distribution networks, guaranteeing the quality of the resource for each use and ensuring the technical, economic, and environmental viability of the planned actions.” Also, it becomes “a strategic tool for diversifying supply sources, reducing pressure on conventional resources, and strengthening the municipality’s water sustainability.”
The Popular Party calls this a “strategic commitment” by Benidorm “to innovation, sustainability, and a guarantee for the future.” The new infrastructure will let the city “significantly reduce drinking water consumption, save a lot of money, and become a leader in sustainable water management.” The councillor said that the project’s staggered implementation and varied funding “guarantee its viability, which will help thousands of homes.”
To cut down on the use of drinking water, reclaimed water will be used instead in places where quality isn’t important for people to drink. This will “create a dual infrastructure that guarantees sustainable supply in the long term, improves efficiency in the management of the integral water cycle and positions Benidorm as a benchmark in sustainable management.”
The councillor also said that homeowners’ organisations, the City Council, sports and recreation facilities, and the hotel industry will be the biggest benefactors. He pointed out some of the primary benefits, such as “less pressure on aquifers, a smaller water footprint, and an estimated savings of around €750,000 per year in the purchase of drinking water once the project is fully developed.”
According to the councillor, the investment in the whole project will come from European funds, subsidies from the Generalitat, the municipal budget, public-private partnerships, and contributions from beneficiaries. He wanted to stress that it is “a long-term plan with a progressive and phased implementation.”
Other things to talk about in plenary
The City Council unanimously agreed to give the Benidorm Corporate Medal to Rafael Ferrer Meliá, who was Mayor from April 4th, 1978, to April 16th, 1979. This was one among the things that were authorised at this plenary session. During the historic water crisis of 1978, which threatened to leave the town without water and without consumers for its growing tourism business, he helped buy the Beniardá wells. He was known as the “Water Mayor.” The city is giving Ferrer Meliá this Corporate Medal to honour the work he did as mayor, when he “had to deal with the most serious crisis in the city’s 20th-century history and fix it, which started the process of Integrated Water Cycle Management, which, after years of work, has made us a model of water management.”
The Benidorm City Council will organise an official event on December 6th to honour Spanish Constitution Day, where they will give out this Corporate Medal.
The council also agreed to update the agreement that gives SUMA the job of collecting taxes during the enforcement phase. This change means that SUMA will now be responsible for collecting all public income without needing separate delegations for each item. The Finance Councillor, Aida García Mayor, made the idea, and all political factions agreed to it. The Citizen Security Councillor, Jesús Carrobles, suggested that the council start the process for the Valencian Regional Government to provide a public recognition to Local Police Officer José Ramón Fuentes Marín for saving a life on September 6th. The council agreed.
The local government team has approved, on its own, the payment of bills totalling slightly over €8.2 million. The PSOE voted against it and Vox abstained. The auditing process was skipped because these services are still being contracted, but they must continue to be provided because they are necessary, including street cleaning, street lighting, and traffic lights, to name a few. An extrajudicial acknowledgement of debt totalling €1,001,844.73 was also allowed to pay off unpaid bills from previous fiscal years. In addition, the political groups were told about how the third quarter of the current fiscal year’s municipal budget was spent.
The laws and the Benidorm City Council’s membership in the La Vila Joiosa Wastewater Treatment Plant Users Association have also been approved. The Popular Party councillors José Ramón González de Zárate and Mónica Gómez will represent the City Council at the Association’s General Assembly. González de Zárate said, “This is an administrative procedure to pay what we owe for discharging into the Amadorio River, as required by the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Júcar River Basin Authority (CHJ), and to avoid more fines for doing so without being a member of the Users Association.”
The same meeting also overwhelmingly approved the Rules for the Temporary Assignment of Use of Emergency Social Housing in Benidorm. Ángela Zaragozí, the Councillor for Social Welfare, said that this kind of housing resource is needed “for people who are homeless or about to lose their home because of unusual circumstances.” The rules spell out the prerequisites for eligibility, which include “unstable family relationships, damage to the primary residence, eviction situations, or people who are in transit because of a vulnerable and urgent situation.” The stay will be as short as possible, but no longer than 15 days.
The Valencian Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FVMP) made a request in the extraordinary business section. The PP and PSOE parties voted for it, but Vox opposed it. This was done in honour of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. The plenary agreement said that the City Council will support the proclamation and “join this collective effort for a more just, violence-free, and truly egalitarian society.”
Author: Derek Appleton
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