Agamed postpones the main Torrevieja flood prevention plan

The business that runs the water cycle in Torrevieja, Agamed, has accepted its Infrastructure Plan for 2026, which will cost almost five million euros (€4,937,471). This is about the same amount of money that the joint venture, which is mostly controlled by Veolia (previously Hidraqua), has spent in the past few years.

Plan for Stormwater

The board of directors approved the budgets on Thursday, December 11th, but the PP-led government made them public the next day. The budgets focus on taking particular steps to lessen the effects of floods in some parts of the municipality. The bulk of the money for the primary project in Torrevieja’s Stormwater Management Plan is still not included in these plans.

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This project would lessen the effects of heavy rain in many parts of the Torrevieja lagoon watershed, like Las Torretas and the area near the CV-95 highway. It has an underground stormwater collector along the greenway that connects to parks that can flood and retention basins that can hold water in the Torrevieja Bay. There will also be a stormwater tank in the parking lot of the water park and another one near the Acequión irrigation canal.

In 2022, the business that runs Agamed and the City Council tried to pay for the project by extending the present concession, which ends in 2028, for 20 years. The deal was that Agamed would pay for the project during the extension period in exchange for extending the concession without a competitive bidding process. But the municipality and the concessionaire turned down the deal, saying it broke the Public Sector Contracts Law, according to a decision by the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency.

Today Alice

The mayor of Torrevieja, Eduardo Dolón, promised to speed up a 25 million euro project after seeing that recent investments like the Doña Inés floodable park and the La Hoya flood control basin helped lessen the effects of the rains, but they still overflowed with 80 litres of rain per square metre.

Water supply, sanitation, and rainwater collectors

So, next year’s improvements will go to Torrevieja’s stormwater drainage network, drinking water supply, and sanitation and sewage systems. The goal is to keep making the infrastructure better overall. The stormwater drainage network will get the most money from this plan, continuing a trend from the past few years. The budget is €1,776,247. This money will be used to make it easier for stormwater runoff to leave the area and to update and extend existing infrastructure to better suit the needs of the people living there now.

The Torrevieja City Council has plans for several enhancement projects, including Phase III of the Torreta Florida Floodable Park project, which is across from the Torrealmendros access road and will cost €624,000. The second phase of the Cortes Valencianas Floodable Park will cost €472,000. In the last several weeks, work on the first phase of the latter project started.

Agamed’s projected investments for 2026

Alto de la Casilla will have a new reservoir

An investment of €512,537 will be made in the network that distributes drinking water. This investment will fix up the infrastructure in the places that need it the most and update and change the existing network. The goal is to make service better by increasing pressure, making sure the supply is reliable, and enhancing the quality of the water. One of the most important investments is the drafting—not building—of the idea for the construction of a 10,000-cubic-metre drinking water reservoir at Alto de la Casilla, known as La Hoya II. The budget for this project is €120,000.

This year, Agamed has had to make up a pipeline in this area to bring water to the new urban development that has “fitted” on one side of the bridge over the N-332 that connects Sector 25 with the private hospital and the International Auditorium.

Fund for Renewal

On the other hand, the Renewal Fund will pay for several projects, such as upgrading the sewer main on Rosa Mazón Valero Avenue, updating the project to renew the main drinking water distribution network in the Lago Jardín-Los Balcones-Autopista area (with a 45 cm diameter pipe), various sewer network renovation projects, and replacing the dehydrated sludge silo at the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). The last project will be co-financed by the Generalitat’s Sanitation Entity. The overall cost is anticipated to be €1,949,495.

A total of €595,520 will be spent to increase the flow of wastewater in the sanitation and sewage network. To do this, “existing infrastructure will be renovated and expanded to meet the current needs of the population.” The city press release doesn’t say which neighbourhoods will get this money.

Author: Derek Appleton