The privatization of the service in La Manga, where there are leaks worth 411,000 euros, will mean the end of the cheap rate for 19,600 subscribers
The largest municipal contract is about to come out of the oven. No other service or public work reaches the value of 224,251,491 euros in which the supply of drinking water and sewerage is valued in a municipality with more than 41,000 subscribers.
The City Council approved yesterday, with the majority of PP votes, the opposition of PSOE and Podemos, and the abstention of Ciudadanos and Vox, the cost report that will serve as the basis for bidding for the new contract, whose concession to Hidrogea began in 1994 and ends in October 2023.
The local government will open a bid for companies that are expected to be competitive, with several giants in contention such as Acciona, Aqualia and Hidrogea, among other companies, for a 20-year contract. In exchange for the benefits of the water business, the new concessionaire will have to make investments worth 33,239,919 euros, mainly to avoid the losses of fresh water that the network registers in the 86 kilometers of pipes in La Manga and in the sections oldest of the San Javier plot, which totals 348 kilometres.
According to the mayor, this amount will translate into a more modern system that will prevent leaks into the subsoil
According to the study carried out by the Polytechnic University of Cartagena commissioned by the City Council to find out the state of the infrastructures and the service, in La Manga there are leaks worth 411,000 euros per year. A veritable strainer through which 477,988 cubic meters leak into the subsoil, almost double that which is lost in the urban center of San Javier.
fresh water inlet
Avoiding the Mar Menor that dose of fresh water – in addition to that which filters through the subsoil of the water table and through the boulevards – is the argument used by the mayor, José Miguel Luengo, to defend the private management model that was questioned by the PSOE and Can. “In La Manga, there are losses due to the neglect of the service,” criticized the spokesman for Podemos, Matías Cantabella, in favor of returning to his direct management. The socialist spokesperson, Laura Gil, believes that “another alternative should have been analyzed because this model is continuous.”
In this regard, Luengo replied that, “in another way, the investments of 33 million could not be made, which will make it possible for us to have the most modern and respectful system with the environment and the Mar Menor in four years.”
With the new contract, the exception of the service in La Manga, whose management has been maintained by the City Council since 1994, when it ended the agreement with Potalmenor, will end. Consequently, the 19,600 subscribers of the tourist enclave will stop paying the cheapest price for water in the entire Region of Murcia, almost equivalent to the sale price of the Mancomunidad de los Canales del Taibilla (MCT) and a third lower than the rest of the residents of San Javier.
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