The government delegate in Galicia, Pedro Blanco, highlighted the pioneering and unprecedented commitment of the Government of Pedro Sánchez to improve and digitize the management of the water cycle through the specific PERTE that mobilizes in our community almost 24 million euros, from which 90 concellos and about 280,000 Galicians and Galicians benefit.
The delegate recalled that the call for funds of the Government Recovery Plan through the first PERTE of digitization of the water cycle managed by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition (MITECO) with 3,060 million euros in public and private investments, selected in Galicia two projects; one promoted by the Diputación de Ourense and AquaOurense and another promoted by Espina & Delfín. In the first case, the Government granted a grant of 7.3 million euros for a total investment of 13.2 and in the second the grant was 6.9 million for a project of 10.4 million.
Pedro Blanco explained on a visit to Ponte Caldelas that the Government of Spain “is a leader in the use of European funds to achieve a more efficient management of an essential asset such as water” and stressed that the PERTE will especially benefit the small concellos in which the infrastructures will be improved and the latest technologies will begin to be applied on the treatment and control of water, a basic and strategic resource.
The 'OU-Intellixente project: A provincia da auga', promoted by AquaOurense and the Diputación de Ourense, was selected as the second best proposal in Spain and the first in Galicia to digitize the management of the water cycle. OU-Intelixente aims to digitize the management of the water cycle of the 81 Ourense concellos of less than 20,000 inhabitants, in addition to the water consortiums of Valdeorras and Os Peares. The initiative will benefit almost 200 thousand ourensanos.
The project of the Santiago company Espina & Delfín will benefit a total of 80,000 inhabitants of 9 concellos and has twenty actions, among which are telelectura, the use of artificial intelligence for exploitation and quality control, network modernization, etc.
Pedro Blanco recalled that a second call for the PERTE for digitization of the water cycle is already underway and that it is also pending resolution at the first call of the PERTE for projects of digitization of the irrigation, which has an initial investment of 100 million and whose deadline for applications closed on December 13, 2023.
Ponte Caldelas thermal station
The government delegate went today to Ponte Caldelas where he supervised, together with the mayor, Andrés Díaz, the project promoted by the Concello for the creation of a future thermal station. Pedro Blanco pledged in the visit the support of the Government of Pedro Sánchez this initiative “because it fits perfectly with the sustainable tourism models that we continue to promote to transform Galicia and because Ponte Caldelas has to recover its status as a thermal reference municipality that should never have lost”.
Thus, he said he hoped that “soon financing lines will be established through future calls for tourism or water with which to carry out an initiative that is very beneficial for the whole of Galicia”. The delegate congratulated the councilor for a project “in which there is a lot of work and enthusiasm” while referring to the obstacles imposed by the Xunta in its processing regretting that “they seem to be more aware of putting sticks on the wheels than of collaborating to continue promoting such an important resource for Galicia as thermalism”.