A ship will carry 2,300 cubic meters of water a day from Bilbao to Bermeo due to the drought
Over the next few weeks, the Bilbao Bizkaia Water Consortium will supply drinking water transported by boat to the towns of Bermeo, Mundaka, Sukarrieta and Busturia, an unprecedented measure for this entity with which it hopes to carry 2,300 cubic meters of water a day to this region of Biscay affected by the drought.
The tanker, with a capacity for 4,000 cubic meters on each trip, will travel between the port of Bilbao (Santurtzi) and Bermeo.
Before transporting the first load, these days technical adjustment and control maneuvers are being carried out, consisting of ensuring that the filling pipe in the port of Bilbao is perfectly coupled to the ship’s tank, as well as to the outlet pipe in the port of Bermeo, and which is also connected to the pumping network built expressly for this function, the Consortium reported on Monday.
Transporting water by boat to the Busturia and Bermeo supply systems, which supply the towns of Bermeo, Mundaka, Sukarrieta and Busturia, will reduce the current supply needs in this area from the Gernika system, so the latter will also benefit from the performance, according to the Consortium.
This “exceptional and circumstantial measure, without precedent in the area of management of the Bilbao Bizkaia Water Consortium”, reinforces others adopted in previous weeks, since the situation of the riverbeds from which the region is supplied, in which some 45,000 people, “has worsened in recent days as it has not rained enough to reverse the current emergency situation, also coupled with the accumulation of days of high temperatures.”
The Consortium has highlighted that the circumstances “demand in the same proportion”, so that, in addition to continuing with the restrictions in force since July 19 in the region, they are going to “significantly reduce the pressures of the service during the night – from 12:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m.–, to increase water savings in the supply”.
He specified that the “historical water deficit” of the region, which the Territorial Action Plan for the Urdaibai Reserve (PAT) estimated at 100 liters per second, has forced the launch in recent months of a “complex program of management of the offer to activate new deposits and shield all the available resources”.
Since mid-July, the situation has already passed into the alert phase, for which reason restrictions have been established in all the municipalities of the Biscayan region of Busturialdea, such as the closure of municipal fountains that are not button fountains, the regulations to respect parks and orchards , reduce to the essential the washing of streets or the prohibition of filling or replenishing private pools and the washing of vehicles, surfaces or private squares.