Water good enough to drink
WHENEVER RELATIVES come over from the UK, they are always wary of using the tap water and often comment that they were under the impression that Spanish tap water upsets their stomachs. The truth of the matter, as RTN found out this week, is that the water that comes from the Torrevieja Water Treatment Plant is purer than many bottled waters.
RTN took part in a tour of the plant alongside the Torrevieja International Cofradias in a visit organised by the Officer in Charge of Foreign Residents at the Torrevieja Town Hall, Graham Knight.
There are four types of waste water treated at the plant and around the Torrevieja municipality, there are 28 different pump stations serving the plant. The majority of water treated at the plant is household waste water and as explained by our able guide, Jesus, there are three different processes that the water goes through which makes it almost 100% pure. The state of art laboratory at the plant controls all the treatment processes which includes filtration, biological and chemical treatments.
SUMMER INFLUX
The plant has the capacity to deal with more than 60,000 cubic metres of waste water every day and that equates to the waste water of nearly half a million people.
Opened in 1982, the plant has since been extended twice. When it first opened, it processed just 4,000 cubic metres per day, which shows how the Torrevieja population has exploded during the last 28 years.
The plant also has the capacity to deal with the annual summer influx of holiday makers and during the winter months, parts of the plant are closed off completely as the need is not there. One hundred percent of the water treated at the plant is recycled and reused and pipework into the plant spans 321 kilometres from La Mata to Los Balcones.
PURE
The plant is computer controlled to manage the flow of waste water through the pumping stations and alarms are installed to notify the plant of any blockage or breakdown immediately so that a team of engineers can be despatched to the station to rectify the problem.
Only twenty six people work at the plant, yet it is efficiently run. Jesus commented: “Most treatment plants have only two stages of filtration process, but here in Torrevieja, we have three. This is when the water goes through a UV filtration process which makes the end result perfectly clean and pure. In fact it is as clean, if not cleaner than bottled water. It’s definitely good enough to drink straight from the tap.”
http://www.roundtownnews.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=26306&Itemid=9
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