We hear almost exclusively about the much-delayed water from Rules Reservoir being urgently needed for agriculture, but it will also be used for drinking water.

Within the municipality of Molvízar is a water-treatment plant, the Estación de Tratamiento de Agua Potable (ETAP) which guarantees the supply of drinking water for around 350,000 people. These installations will have to be adapted to the arrival of water from Béznar-Rules.

The distribution system under Section Nine (Glosado 9), includes a large pipeline from the reservoir to the ETAP. From there it will be distributed through the existing drinking-water network run by the Mancomunidad reaching everywhere between La Herradura and Albuñol.

It is calculated that the money needed to adapt the ETAP is somewhere around 20m euros, which is down to the Mancomunidad, although it will receive help from the Junta de Andalucía.

Editorial comment: all this talk of finally connecting up the stored water in the Beznar-Rules reservoirs, bringing guaranteed water to the coast in the future, ignores the fact that the reservoirs depend on the rivers feeding them, which in turn depends on rainfall… and that is not something that we can depend on.

(News: Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)