Walter Finch
THE Costa del Sol has dodged a potential water crisis after the Junta completed a major upgrade to Marbella’s desalination plant.
The new bells and whistles will boost its output from six million litres to 20 million per year.
The €8 million modernisation of the 1990s facility has come just in the nick of time for the region, which has battled several drought periods in recent years and sees its population triple or even quadruple during the summer months.
President Juanma Moreno inaugurated the expanded plant on Tuesday, revealing it will now provide a third of the western Costa del Sol’s water needs and can even transfer resources to Malaga and the parched Axarquia if required through the so-called ‘water highway’ system.
“Without water there is no future, employment, progress, well-being or possibility of moving forward,” Moreno declared at the ceremony, where officials symbolically toasted with glasses of desalinated water.
The plant’s restoration was desperately needed after years of underperformance.
Despite being designed to produce 20 million litres annually, it had been limping along at just a third of its intended capacity.
The upgrade comes as Malaga province sits at 60% water reserves, enough to last until the end of the hydrological year on September 30, though Moreno warned that ‘the drought has not ended.’
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The works were carried out in two phases, with €3.3 million spent on the first stage and €4.6 million on the second.
The overhaul included replacing filters, pipes and filtration equipment, essentially creating what officials described as a “practically new plant.”
Marbella mayor Angeles Muñoz praised the project’s timing, recalling the water restrictions imposed last year that affected not just residents but the crucial summer tourist influx.
“A work of this magnitude was essential,” she said.
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The desalination plant upgrade forms part of the Junta’s ambitious water strategy, with €2 billion invested in hydraulic reforms since 2019.
In Malaga province alone, 31 projects worth €151 million have been completed, with another seven worth €120 million currently underway.
Looking ahead, Moreno outlined plans to increase Andalucia’s desalinated water production from 103 million litres annually to 160 by 2027, while recycled water output should jump from the current 70 million litres to 180 over the same period.
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The timing couldn’t be more critical for the Costa del Sol, a region whose small La Concepcion reservoir struggles to cope with prolonged dry spells and massive seasonal population swings.
With a warming climate bringing more frequent droughts, the upgraded plant provides crucial insurance against future water shortages.
Other major water projects in the pipeline include the expansion of the Rio Verde water treatment plant in Marbella, with contracts expected to be signed by year-end after reviewing around ten bids for the €39 million project.
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