The visitors were given an informative talk accompanied by a Power Point Presentation about the plant by Jesus, with translation kindly provided by Graham Knight. They were enlightened as to how the city’s 28 pumping stations are all computer controlled from the treatment plant and how the sewage is treated. One important aspect of the treatment in Torrevieja is that all sewage passes through three different cycles of purification and treatment, allowing the treated water to be harnessed for irrigation and other uses. The Visitors were accompanied by Councillor for Foreigners and New Technology, Pedro Valero, himself an employee of Aguamed before entering politics, plus and the Director of the Foreign Residents Office and God Father to the Los Costaleros, Graham Knight.
The computer system also contains archival information about water usage going back many years. The charts produced from water usage allows the City and the Plant to plan for the annual influx of visitors to the city, with the largest invasion of visitors being the August 15th weekend, with over half-a-million residents in the city! By studying past charts, it is also easy to pinpoint times of crisis, recession and growth in the city. The amount of water usage is also a factor in how Torrevieja Town Hall knows the actual number of residents in the city, using a combination of previous data and average waste usage in other parts of Spain. Possibly because of changes in the Padron registration, Torrevieja population has remained around the 104,000 mark while in reality, when data from water usage, power consumption and garbage collection is evaluated, the City probably has a ‘real’ population of closer to 200,00!
Most Water Treatment Plants only treat waste water twice but in Torrevieja, waste water purification is performed in three phases: in the first of these, residues are separated, the solids from liquids. These are then separated again into two types, organic and non-recoverable, plus a third containment area for other solid waste that is unfortunately still thrown into toilets! The other solid waste goes to a plant where, after treatment becomes fertilizer for plants. In the second phase, the water is purified by chemicals and acquires a degree of purification; which can be used for irrigation of green areas. In the third and last stage, water is treated to sessions of ultraviolet rays, which kills all bacteria, allowing it to be used for irrigation in general.
Much has also been said in the Media about the City’s new Distillation Plant, however, although on Torrevieja’s door step, the Distillation plant will primarily be used for agriculture, golf courses and urbanisations outside of Torrevieja, much of destined for Murcia! Jesus pointed out that Torrevieja has one of the most advanced Water Treatment Plants in Spain and the city will not need to avail itself of water from the new distillation centre! Other groups have already expressed an interest in visiting the Water Treatment Plant and those interested should contact Graham Knight at the Town Hall. For those concerned about ‘smells’, be assured that because of the rigorous and through process that waste water is treated to, your typical Public Lavatory probably smells worse than one experiences in touring the site.
