Facing the lack of rainfall in recent times, we are in a very serious situation at El Poble Nou de Benitatxell. The technical health legislation that regulates the quality of drinking water (RD 3/2023) limits the presence of salts to 200 mg/litre for sodium and 250 mg/litre for chlorides and, at present, and after two years with insufficient precipitation, we are well above these values.
The groundwater aquifers from which our wells collect water are suffering from the intrusion of seawater, as they are not being sufficiently recharged with fresh water, which means that the water in our taps has a higher salt content. It should be noted at this point that the main well from which we obtain our water, the Senija well, currently has a salt content ten times higher than its usual value, and five times higher than its historical value of salt content.
As if this were not enough, the situation is aggravated during the summer season due to the increase in population and demand of water. Our desalination plants do not have the capacity to eliminate the excess salts that we currently have in the wells and, despite the fact that the Teulada – Benitatxell Water Consortium has approved the execution of works amounting to more than three million euros to solve these problems, the works will not be completed until 2025, given their technical complexity.
Regarding the water that we have available in our taps, we must report that it does not present any problem for daily use in personal hygiene and in our homes. As for the use of water for human consumption (drinking, cooking, etc.), the Council is awaiting the analytical results being carried out by Hidraqua, the company responsible for the drinking water service, in order to be able to inform the public if it is necessary to decree limitations on its use. Limitations that, if any, will only be derived from the presence of salts, there being no pathogenic or toxic element for allowed uses.