ACCIONA Agua: success stories

EDARS HADDA & ARANA (SAUDI ARABIA)

The wastewater treatment plants at Hadda (125,000 m3/day) and Arana (250,000 m3/day) are responsible for the treatment of all the waste water generated in the holy city of the Muslim world, Mecca.

Saudi Arabia is a country with very scarce water resources from surface water and aquifers, such that the production of drinking water for human consumption has to come from large desalination plants. Indeed, population growth and projects to expand the supply network are based on the construction of huge new desalination plants in the future.

The Mecca installations are an exception in that there is a defined plan for the reuse of treated water, for example from the Arana plant where it is recycled in road cleaning and watering gardens in the holy city. Similarly, a large pumping station is also now being built to transport the treated water from the Hadda plant and reuse it in the heart of Mecca.

It is not only the quality that is essential, therefore, but the continuity and optimal operation of these two plants. They treat water to a very high standard and have acquired a special importance in the city.

People management is another important aspect of these projects. ACCIONA has a team of 116 people from 11 different countries, who have many cultural, religious, linguistic and educational differences, but one thing in common: they have to work in temperatures that rise to over 45˚C.

Julio Ratia, project director for the plants, explained: “Within the rituals that make up the tradition of the pilgrimage to Mecca, it is the sacrifice of the lamb that affects us in the operation of the treatment plants. This is due to the spilling of the blood of three million lambs into domestic waste water. It reaches the treatment plants in no time at all.”

• Client: National Water Company (NWC)
• Location: Border between Jeddah and Makkah (in Mecca province)
• Total capacity (m3/day): 375,000

JAVEA DESAL PLANT: BEFORE & AFTER

Another ACCIONA Agua success story lies in the Javea desalination plant in Alicante. This represents an engineering and construction effort of great significance, hard work and development, one that the inhabitants of the town had been dreaming of for many years.

It was not long after the plant was commissioned in 2002 that the people of Javea were enjoying quality tap water. Neighbors, hoteliers, restaurant and shop owners all gained from the progress, tranquility and comfort the new plant brought to the town. Behind them lay years of disruptions to supply, summer drought periods, having to use saltwater (16,00023,000 units) or put up with earthcolored water running through the plumbing, swimming pools and watering systems.

The queues to collect water in containers handed out in the town are also now a thing of the past; the image they gave of scarcity was hardly becoming of a 21st Century resort.

As for the environment, the initial detractors of the scheme, concerned about the possible damage that the briny water pumped back into the sea could cause to seagrass, had to recognize that the excellent project management by ACCIONA Agua made the best of Javea’s privileged coastal location. New life was given Operator in Javea desalination plant, Alicante (Spain). to the Fontana channel, which serves to transport the diluted brine back to the sea. The channel, a natural spillway from the River Gorgos (dry these days), is now a cleaned-up space, a home to wildlife and clear of foul smells.

A small rise in water rates, optimum service and good quality water have turned Javea into a town without restrictions or disruptions to supply in spite of the droughts that continue to hit the Levante region as a whole.

• Client: Javea Town Hall
• Location: Jávea, Alicante
• Population supplied: 134,000
• Total capacity (m3/day): 26,000
• Final use of water: Drinking water

COSTA TROPICAL

As of 1996, ACCIONA Agua, in association with Aqualia and under the name Aguas y Servicios, is responsible for the system of end-to-end water cycle management for the Community of Municipalities on Granada’s Costa Tropical. During this time, the work carried out has brought notable benefits for the population, including:

• A general improvement in the quality of the water supply, both in terms of water cleanliness and security of supply.
• Environmental improvements such as the reduction in the use of natural resources through better network performance, less energy consumed, and cleaner rivers and beaches due to wastewater treatment.
• Support for economic growth by guaranteeing drinking water supply to a region with scarce water resources.

Close collaboration with the Community of Municipalities has attracted investment (in improved treatment plants, drinking water reservoirs, piping network efficiency, etc.) from the local authorities. Added to this is the research work being carried out through an agreement between the University of Granada and ACCIONA Agua’s R&D&I department, and a social action program focused on explaining the Integrated Water Cycle in schools and to neighborhood associations.

The years of work have borne results, such as the extension of the concession till 2045, which entails the investment of over 32 billion euros in renovation works and network improvements in the different municipalities, funded through an Improvement Levy.

• Population 130,000 / 265.000 inhabitants
• 15 municipalities
• 92,970 clients
• 170 employees
• 10.3MMm3 of water invoiced
• 1,154 km length of network
• 6 WWTPs
• 92% percentage of water treated

2013 figures.