The Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation (CHG), an agency under the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (MITECO), points out that this agency has been responsible for executing the expansion of the Melilla Desalination Plant (IDAM) and not the construction of a new plant, so most of the infrastructure is prior to this expansion intervention and is precisely the one that presents symptoms of corrosion, leaks in some elements and breakdowns in old filters.
The CHG recalls that the IDAM of Melilla was built through a project, construction and operation competition by concession system, awarded to the UTE Ferroflorida-Cadagua, and entered into service in June 2007 with an operating period of 12 years that ended in June 2019, managed by the Autonomous City without having carried out during all that time renovation or maintenance of the plant of noteworthy entity, which is a handicap in the state of the installation at present.
The General Directorate of Water of the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, through the Hydrographic Confederation of Guadalquivir, has been responsible not for building a new plant, but for expanding the existing one as stated in the agreement signed by the Ministry, the CHG and the city of Melilla itself. The works were awarded by the CHG in June 2020 for an amount of 17,449,436 euros and a term of 27 months and their main objective was to increase the production of the plant to 30,000 m3/day by executing a fourth frame, as well as the construction of a new inmisarium, filters and all the electromechanical elements necessary for its start-up.
After the processing of two modifications during the execution of the works, which apart from covering the incidents that arose during the construction made possible the replacement of all the membranes of the four frames and cleaning of the existing inmisarium, improvements that were not contemplated in the project initially contracted, the operating time was extended and the total budget increased to 23,060,090 euros.
The CHG also highlights that the Autonomous City has had reserve generators since 2008 that never put into operation, which serve to ensure continuity in the operation of the plant in case of power line failure. As it was not operational during the execution of the works, it resulted in that during the execution of the works there were cuts in the supply of the population due to failures arising in the electricity line that could have been avoided.
For its part, the General Directorate of Water formalized the contract for the new electricity line contemplated in the agreement in December 2022, but the Autonomous City requested some layout changes that resulted in having to cancel the order and make a new one that is in processing. This delay in the execution of the power line has caused that the four reverse osmosis frames of the plant cannot be started because a possible breakdown of the power line by the generator sets is not covered.
In this way, the CHG explains that if the Autonomous City had had the generators delivered in 2008 operational, the four racks could have been started simultaneously with the current electricity line and, as has been said before, many inconveniences would have been avoided to the neighbors of Melilla by cuts in supply when the electricity line was damaged during the execution of the works.
It should also be noted that it is not true that there are only three high-pressure pumps in the plant, there are currently four installed and the reserve one still uninstalled, but available in the plant for possible replacement. Finally, during the delivery of the IDAM, the Autonomous City knew and accepted that until the end of 2024, when the guarantee period is exhausted, all possible contingencies and terminations that may arise would be covered by the UTE construction company.