The Diputación de Tarragona has presented a plan to know the existence of possible water leaks in 120 municipalities of less than 20,000 inhabitants in Camp de Tarragona, the Terres de l’Ebre and the Baix Penedès.
The objective of the project, valued at 10 million euros, is to improve efficiency and transform the management of the integral water cycle of these municipalities.
“We are aware that there are some cases in which up to 40% of the water in the network is lost or more,” lamented President Noemí Llauradó, who hopes to receive European funding to reverse this situation.
If the Provincial Council obtains the funds, the project will be executed within a period of two years divided into three phases: planning, digitalization and improvement of services and governance.
“We must all be responsible with the efficient management of the integral water cycle, especially in the current exceptional situation caused by the drought,” stated Llauradó.
He has defended that in those small municipalities with few economic resources, the Provincial Council “gives them a hand.”
In fact, the president of the supra-municipal entity has stressed that “this is, without a doubt, the mandate of water” and that this is demonstrated by the set of projects that have already been launched around climate change and extreme drought during the last half year.
Among them is the ‘Project to improve the efficiency of the urban water cycle through digitalization’ that the Tarragona Provincial Council has already presented in the PERTE, to obtain the 10 million budget and be able to start working from June.
“We cannot, nor do we want to, miss any opportunity to improve water management,” added Llauradó, who detailed that the project could benefit a total of 142,669 residents of the district.
For the moment, the technicians of the Provincial Council have already begun to investigate to know “what is the state of the water supply networks of these 120 municipalities and to be able to propose and present to PERTE the most appropriate solution”, as explained the deputy delegate of Ecological Transition, Carme Ferrer.
From there, the supra-municipal entity has decided to structure the project into three strategic axes: planning, digitalization and improvement of services and governance.
The Tarragona Provincial Council has detailed that, although the new project only contemplates the diagnosis and digitalization of the water cycle, all those municipalities that want to improve their infrastructure may also request, in parallel, financing from the ImpulsoDipta plan. In fact, this consultation plan finances 100% of these types of actions.
