Author(s): Clara Estrela-Segrelles; Jenifer Perez-Salvador; Siro Raul Cabedo-Marti; Ana Isabel Fito- Burgalat; Jose Ramon Jimenez-Salas; Ignacio Sanguesa-Roger
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Abstract: The COVID-19 crisis has shown us the need to guarantee basic services, such as water supply. The province of Castellon, located in the east of Spain, has 585,590 inhabitants and the main source of water supply is groundwater. The coastal strip bears the highest population density, increased in the summer period by an important tourist inflow. There is a strong water deficit in this area. Conversely, the interior area of the province, scarcely populated and with an economy based on livestock farming, is considered a water surplus area but there are difficulties in extracting groundwater, mostly due to its depth. Moreover, climate change scenarios predict a decrease in water resources throughout the 21st century in this area (CEH-CEDEX, 2017). This will produce a situation of greater water stress in the near future. Traditionally, in the Province there has been a lack of planned and continuous hydrogeological research on the account of economic, technical, administrative and competence difficulties, which has held back the development of supra-municipal drinking water distribution networks. A consequence of this situation are the existing water infrastructures built in the past, which are not used or are underused. To remedy this issue, the Drinking Water Supply Master Plan was approved at the plenary session of the Provincial Council of Castellon (2019). This project develops the Drinking Water Supply Master Plan. It promotes the maximum connectivity in the province of Castellon through the construction of a water pipeline network that connects relevant drinking water collection points with municipal water tanks. The aim of this project is to increase the available water resources in the province, improve the guarantee of supply, leverage underused existing infrastructures, establish a balanced price within the province for recovering the costs of water production and distribution, energy self-sufficiency, deploy high-speed internet connection, encourage economic activities that prevent the emptying of rural areas and creation of rural tracks coinciding with the pipelines layout with the aim of connecting isolated areas and using them in the prevention and extinction of forest fires.
Year: 2022