Sewage treatment in Mijas and Fuengirola will not be a problem in the next 20 years. At least that was the promise made by the director general of the Andalusian-Mediterranean water authority (CMA), Antonio Rodríguez Leal, during his visit to the new sewage works in Cerro del águila, Mijas, last Friday. The plant can now deal with some 60,000 cubic metres of water every day, the amount of sewage produced by a population of 240,000. At present the plant is treating 30,000 cubic metres every day but before the recent expansion work its capacity was for only 18,000. “The facilities are bigger than we need at the moment, but in this way we will be able to cope with the population growth over the next 20 years”, said Antonio Rodríguez Leal.
The 35 million euro expansion scheme, carried out by the firms Acciona and Sando, has also improved the quality of the service provided. The new treatment system can produce 20,000 cubic metres of recycled water every day, enough to irrigate 24 18-hole golf courses as well as washing down streets and watering public gardens and sports facilities.
The authority is also studying the possibility of using some of the recycled water to create a barrier which would prevent sea water from seeping into the area’s underground water deposits. Another idea is to use some of the water to increase the volume of the river Fuengirola on its final stretch. “These are options we are considering but nothing has been decided yet,” said Rodríguez Leal.
The new extended sewage works in Mijas started operating in December to coincide with the inauguration of the Benalmádena sewage works (with a capacity to treat 40,000 cubic metres a day). However the project is not yet finished. The next and final step will be to install domes to cover the primary and secondary tanks to prevent the bad smells from escaping to the surrounding area. The domes will cost some three million euros and will be fitted by the end of this year. “This brings an end to an old problem both for the people of Mijas and Fuengirola and part of Benalmádena”, said the Mayor of Mijas, Antonio Sánchez.
The rest of the Costa
The western Costa del Sol’s integral sewage treatment project will be completed with the extension of the Guadalmansa plant in Estepona, where work is due to start this year, and of the Algeciras plant in the province of Cadiz, which will be finished this year.
Progress on the sewage scheme for the eastern Costa del Sol is not so advanced. Work in Torrox is 25 per cent finished and is expected to be totally complete by 2010. As far as Nerja is concerned, the authority is currently finalising the environmental impact report for the future sewage works in the Maro-Cerro Gordo area.
