알리칸테의 양당 정치인은 최근 가뭄 문제를 개선하기 위해 스페인의 중앙정부는 두 개의 오랜 시간 연기된 역삼투압 담수화 플랜트를 완공·시행해야 된다고 촉구했다.

Torrevieja지역에 위치한 4억3천800만 달러 규모의 플랜트는 유럽 최대 담수화 시설이다. 이 시설의 생산량은 무르시아 지역의 관개 및 식수, 알리칸테 지역의 식수에 필요한 물을 동등하게 공급 할 수 있을 것으로 예상한다.

스페인 기반의 담수화 회사인 Acciona가 건설 계약과 15년 동안의 운영·관리 계약을 수주했으며 총 계약 금액은 4억3천500만 달러이다. 플랜트를 즉시 시행할 경우 이미 한계에 도달한 지하수 저장소나 급수 절감을 줄일 수 있다.

Opposition politicians in Alicante, Spain have called on the country's central government to implement the completion of two, long-delayed reverse osmosis desalination plants to avoid urgent problems in the province amid a current drought.

Provincial deputy secretary of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (Partido Socialista Obrero Espanol - PSOE) Herick Campos, said this week that the "paralysis" of the construction of the 240,000 m³/d Torrevieja facility and a 50,000 m³/d plant at Mutxamel was unacceptable. He said the "delay in commissioning of the desalination plants" by the government had left the province facing a particularly difficult time with local agriculture badly hit unless urgent action was taken.

The 300 million (US$ 438 million) plant at Torrevieja on Spain's arid south-east coast is Europe's largest desalination facility. Its output is expected to be split equally between supplying irrigation in Murcia and drinking water to municipalities in Murcia and Alicante. Spanish desalination company Acciona won the construction contract and a 15- year operation and maintenance contracts totalling 297 million (US$ 435 million).

According to Campos the immediate implementation of the plants would avoid depleting already limited underground reserves or rationing water for other industries, and restrictions on consumption.

Earlier this year, the Constitutional Court annulled an agreement set out in March 2007 that ordered a halt on construction to finish the desalination plant in Torrevieja. The plant was set to be a flagship project, becoming the largest such facility in the whole of Europe, and the second largest in the world, but was fraught with political debate, claims of over budgeting and waste and environmental concerns.

 

[출처 = Desalination & Water Reuse / 2014년 8월 25일]