Badalona City Council has detected two new drinking water leaks in the Canyet area, at the same point where a pipe from Aigües Ter Llobregat (ATLL) has been pouring 180,000 liters into the sewer every day since 2005. The municipal technicians they are trying to detect the exact point of the leaks, which cannot be ruled out that they could be from the same pipeline or from an underground mine, as explained yesterday by the mayor, Xavier García Albiol.
Shortly after the operators of the Badalona City Council managed to divert part of the water that spills into the leak of the pipe that runs between the Drinking Water Treatment Station of Ter and the Purification Station of La Trinitat, two new areas have been located where there are also losses that also end up in the sewers.
So far, Badalona City Council is recovering approximately 50% of the water, as it diverts it to municipal tanks from where it refills the tankers to clean the streets and irrigate parks and gardens. The presence of chlorine in the water suggests that the leak could be mixed with some natural mine in the area.
Recovering the maximum flow that is wasted every day in the Badaloní neighborhood is one of the objectives of the municipal government, since, as García Albiol hinted, he does not trust in a definitive solution before four years pass.
To repair the Canyet leak, a work that the Catalan Water Agency (ACA) will have to deal with, it will be necessary to build a parallel channel, since the current one is in a very bad state. It is a cement pipe that was built more than 60 years ago, which is very deteriorated and has numerous cracks. Almost 30 million liters per hour pass through this pipe that supplies drinking water to three million people in the metropolitan area.
Given the impossibility of leaving such a population without supply, the ACA decided to build a parallel conduit. The approximate cost of the new infrastructure is 38 million euros, precisely the cause that has led to the repeated delays. The work should have been completed in 2009.
Sources from the Generalitat state that 17 years ago, work began on the split to solve the leak in Badalona. A project that has never been completed and which, given the restrictions due to the drought, has provoked protests from the City Council and the residents of the neighborhood, fed up that “for 18 years the Canyet leak has not been repaired”.
According to the Agency’s technicians, this is a work that involves great complexity, as it will be necessary to install a parallel channel of seven kilometers, which will have a diameter of two meters. The new canalization will run through the municipalities of Llagosta, Montcada i Reixac and Santa Coloma de Gramenet.
The mayor of Badalona, ??faced with the forecast of drinking water restrictions throughout Catalonia, maintains that, although “it is a worrying situation”, for the moment “it should not be tolerated”. The council, faced with the disquiet shown by the neighbors, affirms that “at least until three or five months from now, the drinking water will not be cut off in Badalona”. And before applying these drastic measures, he suggests that there may be others “like reducing the water pressure” in homes. At the moment, the restrictions are limited to municipal actions, with the prohibition of watering parks and gardens with potable water.
