Wastewater, once treated and purified, could have a second life dedicated to combating water stress during periods of drought, especially in coastal areas and with seasonal increases in water consumption. The objective is to combat the overexploitation of underground resources.
Thus, reclaimed water can become the key element of a managed underground aquifer recharge system. It is the objective of a pilot project called LIFE Matrix, which aims to reuse 50,000 cubic meters of reclaimed water to recharge these reservoirs by surface infiltration, thus increasing underground water resources by 15%.
This research also seeks to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by 99% compared to other techniques used.
This pilot project will run for 36 months in Marbella (Malaga), where water consumption triples during the summer season, due to the increase in demand that the tourism boom implies. To this is added the demographic growth at the provincial level, where the resident population has increased by 30% in the last 20 years.
“For this reason, it is necessary to integrate non-conventional and sustainable water resources, such as reclaimed water, in the management plans & rdquor ;, emphasize from LIFE Matrix, who also highlight that 34 of the 69 masses of underground water in Andalusia suffer “significant pressures & rdquor ;, due to the use of water for agricultural activities, urban supply and golf courses, according to the Hydrological Plan of the Hydrographic Demarcation of the Andalusian Mediterranean Basins (PH-DHCMA) for the period between 2015 and 2021.
The main goal of this experimental test is to increase the availability of underground water resources and to tackle two problems, water scarcity and overexploitation of aquifers, through a system based on three components: one of a physical nature, focused on improve water quality; a digital component that will collect all the information registered at the control points and will establish risk levels for health and the environment and, finally, a governance component, which will establish guidelines and methodical guides to enhance the recharge of aquifers and standardize their implementation under a legal framework at national or European level.
Researchers have been proposed to demonstrate the viability of the reuse of water for the recharge of aquifers in terms of water security both at the environmental level and for the human being, as well as environmental and economic sustainability as added values of reclaimed waters, in addition to improving the perception that the population has of them.
How does it work?
The La Víbora de Marbella Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP), managed by the public company Acosol, will host the construction of the managed aquifer recharge system.
The volume of reclaimed water deemed necessary will be conducted from the tertiary treatment plant to a set of ponds. There it will pass through an artificial wetland where it will be subjected to a process of phytoremediation (phytotechnology that takes advantage of the ability of plants to absorb pollutants) and, later, It will be transferred to the recharge basin where it will infiltrate by gravity through a permeable and reactive organic layer until it reaches the aquifer level.
“The flow of regenerated water through the recharge system will improve its quality in a natural way, reducing salinity, quantity of nutrients and emerging compounds & rdquor ;, explain from Life Matrix.
Through this system, the researchers calculate that the amount of treated water discharged into the sea from La Víbora will be reduced, since the reuse of this alternative resource will increase by 10% due to its new life in the aquifers.
Life Matrix is coordinated by the Andalusian Water Research Center Foundation (Cetaqua Andalucía), in which Acosol and the Hydrogeology Center of the University of Malaga (CEHIUMA) also participate. In addition, it is co-financed by the European Commission through the LIFE Program.