The Nerja sewage-treatment plant is in the midst of undergoing its trials, which began in October – you’d probably not want to ponder on what that entails.

The project began in 1993 and has since cost a total of 25-million euros to reach this point. Since then nearly three decades have passed comprising of failed pledges, construction companies going bust, inaccurate completion dates and summer beaches along the coastline visited by somebody else’s post-digestive output.

The trials continue and so it will be another four months before it is handed over to area waterboard, Aguas de Narixa S. A, to run. And run it will; some  25,000 cubic metres of sewage a day.

Now, the thing is that the design was cutting edge three decades ago when it was designed but that’s not the case after this elapse. In fact, one specialist has come up with five ways that the design can be improved after having studied the project and noted deficiencies, or better said ‘missed technical opportunities.’

One of them deals with how water resources can be recuperated through tertiary treatment. He says that the plant has storage for 10,000 cu/m of residual water which could be used for irrigation of agricultural land.

In the meantime, the Central Government has racked up 50m euros in EU fines because Nerja is still putting its sewage into the sea untreated. In other words, the fines have turned out to be double what it has cost to build the plant in the first place.

(News: Nerja, Axarquia, Costa del Sol, Malaga, Andalucia: Photo: E. Cabezas)