- The aid for the 30 projects financed, 5 in the Community of Madrid, ranges between 3.3 and 7.9 million euros and will benefit 1,676 municipalities in 16 autonomous communities
- At the moment the second call of the PERTE is open, also with 200 million euros, whose deadline for the submission of projects ends on December 13, 2023
The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) publishes today Thursday in its web page the provisional resolution of the first call of the PERTE for digitization of the water cycle, granting aid of a total amount of 200 million euros for the improvement of the digitization of the urban water cycle.
A total of 30 projects have been selected, 5 in the Community of Madrid, with aid ranging from 3.3 to 7.9 million euros per project, from which 1,676 municipalities of 16 autonomous communities with a population of 14,742,016 inhabitants will benefit. The grants will benefit projects that deal with water management, both in large cities and in small rural municipalities, and that have presented grouped projects.
The beneficiaries have been operators of urban water supply, sanitation and purification services of various kinds, such as local government entities, public enterprises, joint enterprises and representatives of the private sector. The projects, selected on a competitive basis, in accordance with the principles of article 8.3 of Law 38/2003, of 17 November, General of Subsidies, stand out for their high technical quality and their contribution to the achievement of the objectives of the PERTE of digitization of the water cycle.
The beneficiaries have been operators of urban water supply, sanitation and purification services of various kinds, such as local government entities, public enterprises, joint enterprises and representatives of the private sector.
The projects, selected on a competitive basis, in accordance with the principles of article 8.3 of Law 38/2003, of 17 November, General of Subsidies, stand out for their high technical quality and their contribution to the achievement of the objectives of the PERTE of digitization of the water cycle.
The actions financed respond to cutting-edge and strategic initiatives that will allow an improvement of the efficiency in the use and management of water in Spain, such as the sensorization in real time of the catchments of the hydraulic public domain, the control of consumption through the implementation of smart meters, the reduction of losses of drinking water, the control in real time of wastewater treatment plants and discharges to the hydraulic public domain, the creation of digital twins and the mathematical modeling of networks and hydraulic systems that allow the use of artificial intelligence for the management of systems, as well as the implementation of platforms that integrate the entire water cycle and support a sustainable management of water resources. In addition, integral projects will be funded that will implement action plans against drought and floods.
After a period of 10 days to receive submissions and the reformulation of the projects, the final decision of the call will be made in the first half of November 2023 and the deadline for the completion of the projects will be December 31, 2025, with the possibility of an extension until the maximum of June 1, 2026.
In addition, the second call for PERTE grants to digitize the urban water cycle for an amount of 200 million is published. The aid will range from EUR 500,000 to EUR 10 million per project as a general rule, which will vary depending on the number of inhabitants of the municipalities in which the actions take place.
The deadline for the submission of applications for this second call will end on December 13, 2023. Likewise, the first call of the PERTE is open for projects of digitalization of the irrigation that, with an initial investment of 100 million euros, will allow the efficiency in the use of water, fertilizers and pesticides in the projects that are finally selected throughout the national level.
Work is also being done on other lines of action of the PERTE. So far, more than 750 million euros have already been mobilized, in different stages of processing, to which the expected calls will be added once the Addendum of the European Recovery Transformation and Resilience Plan is approved.