Water for drinking

For ACCIONA Agua, serving people is our priority, and since our early beginnings we have always brought innovative solutions to problems of drinking water supply throughout the world. The company has shown this at the 100-plus drinking water treatment plants (DWTPs) it has built on five continents, which have a total capacity of over 7.5 million m3 and supply nearly 30 million people. In 2015 alone, ACCIONA Agua treated 197 hm3 of drinking water in places as far away from Spain as Mundaring in Western Australia.

Such a plant, which supplies drinking water to 100,000 people, and future facilities at Oum Mazza in Morocco and Saint John in Canada, demonstrate the ability of ACCIONA Agua to build facilities in different countries with diverse climates. The key to success is combining our engineers’ know how with experience accumulated over the years. All this has seen ACCIONA Agua become one of the top companies in designing and constructing this type of water treatment plant.

NEW WATER PURIFICATION TECHNOLOGIES

Reverse osmosis for purifying water

Increasing irrigation of crops that, until relatively few years ago, were always just rain fed, such as vines and olives, and a growing population and changes in the ways potable water is consumed, have all led to a greater use of water resources than in the past. This is the case in the area supplied by the Martos DWTP in Jaén, southern Spain. The capacity of the original plant built in 2003 has had to be increased by sourcing from Viboras reservoir in Casillas municipality, for which an intake and pipe network to the DWTP had to be built. This reservoir is unique in that some of its basin lies over gypsum deposits. As such, saline streams feed into the reservoir with a high concentration of sulfates and chlorine.

To use this water from the reservoir in the DWTP at Martos, it was necessary to install reverse osmosis membranes, normally used in desalination, to improve the quality of the reservoir water to that stipulated by legislation governing the quality of water fit for human consumption. The new arrangement ensures sufficient supply to municipalities dependent on the DWTP and which had been suffering water shortages due to over-reliance on the historic mineral springs in the area.

Following the use of the reverse osmosis system, and the mixing of this desalinated water with supply from the Martos springs, a higher quality drinking water has been produced than was available before, since the mineral water from the springs also carried a high salt content.

ACCIONA AGUA HAS BUILT DWTPS IN 25 COUNTRIES ON 5 CONTINENTS:

• CANADA
• DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
• NICARAGUA
• COLOMBIA
• PUERTO RICO
• VENEZUELA
• PORTUGAL
• SPAIN  
• ITALY
• IRAQ
• EGYPT
• MOROCCO
• CHINA INDONESIA
• AUSTRALIA

Interview to José Miguel Belloso, O&M Manager for conventional plants