Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterSa Pobla23/11/2018 14:37
TW

Sa Pobla town hall has put on hold a project to build a new water purification plant. It had been hoped that the project would receive tourist tax funding, but as it has not, the town hall has suspended the necessary processing for the scheme. The cost is put at 1.9 million euros, money that the town hall does not have unless it were to acquire more debt.

The new plant is considered to be necessary in order to improve the process of reducing nitrates. It would also stop the spills into the Albufera Nature Park which come from the existing plant. Substituting the osmosis plant for a biological one would have the additional benefit of reducing the cost of the water service by 40%.

The osmosis system has been operating since 2007. While it produces well purified water, it is expensive and is not environmentally friendly because of the amount of energy and chemicals it requires. The biological system uses relatively new technology and would get round the current problems while also eliminating nitrates.

The town hall insists that current water quality is optimum but it acknowledges that there is an inherent issue with leakages into the torrent that runs into Albufera.