They will invest 6.7 million in Los Alcázares to avoid leaks

Shielding underground urban networks to prevent seepage into the Mar Menor has become a monumental but urgent task. The Los Alcázares City Council has created an emergency plan with an investment of 6.7 million euros that includes projects to be carried out “in less than a year”, the mayor, Mario Pérez Cervera, announced yesterday.

The plan will have ‘zero cost’ for the municipal coffers: 3.7 million come from State funds within the framework of priority actions in the lagoon and the remaining 3 million will be provided by the company Aqualia, to which the City Council has just extend the drinking water supply management concession for 5 years, and will execute part of the plan, such as fine-tuning the networks.

The largest item (2.73 million) is the most urgent. It contemplates the lining of the ducts and their sealing with ultraviolet light in the urban strip closest to the coast, from Los Narejos to La Concha. This system is the one applied in other municipalities to avoid leaks from the subsoil into the networks and vice versa. This system avoids replacing pipes and reduces execution.

From Avenida de la Libertad inland, the plan plans to replace sections of the network in ‘ground zero’, the area most affected by the floods. With 1.5 million, it is contemplated to eliminate almost half of the asbestos-cement pipes in the wastewater network – Los Alcázares has about 60 km – and replace them with PVC to avoid porosity and contamination of the environment, especially since the level water table already exceeds that of the pipes. These substitutions will be made in the Club Náutico area, Plaza del Espejo and Punta Calera.

With the new compact network, the mayor assures that “the salinity of the flow of the Los Alcázares treatment plant will decrease, whose capacity allows treating 99% of the volume to be reused.” «The City Council is going to invest 6.7 million euros in improving the network to protect the Mar Menor, but also so that farmers in Campo de Cartagena have free water. Maybe it’s time to put a price on it, “says the mayor.

Another objective of the plan will be to renew the drinking water network (1,160,000 euros) and, to avoid surface discharges, which occur with heavy rains when the non-separative canals overflow, 800,000 euros will be invested in pumping stations.

The Plan foresees continuing with the expansion of the separating sections for wastewater and rainwater, as was already done in Andalucía, San José and Manuel Acedo streets. In the coming months, the Isla Tabarca streets will be unfolded, up to the Petra Sánchez school, Meseguer and Oslo. “It is a large investment, which is not seen but that leaves me with the peace of mind of ensuring the protection of the Mar Menor a little more”, indicates the mayor.