Construction of a million-euro wastewater treatment plant was halted in Guimarães due to unprofitability.
Construction of a million-euro wastewater treatment plant in Guimarães was halted due to its non-compliance with the hydrological development plan and short lifespan.
In Güímar, the construction of a treatment plant in Goleta, near Agache, has been halted. Local authorities have already invested around one million euros in it. Francisco Hernández Armas, the councilor for concessions and agriculture, explained that the reason is the short lifespan of the facility.
The treatment plant was intended to solve the problem of sewage discharge into the sea from a well on state land. This well was used by residents of the area, and a lawsuit has been ongoing since 2018 because of it. People did not like that the construction was taking place near their homes, they were not consulted, and the works themselves caused inconvenience. They even complained to Deputy Rafael Yanes.
The People's Party, which is currently in power, led by Mayor Carmen Luisa Castro, has always been against this construction. Therefore, one of the first decisions they made together with their coalition partners was to stop the work. The councilor explained: "This treatment plant does not comply with the Tenerife Hydrological Plan, which requires pumping wastewater to regional treatment plants." These regional treatment plants are located in Lomo del Caballo (Arafo).
Hernández Armas, the municipality's spokesperson from the People's Party, says that the authorities plan to pump wastewater from Goleta to the southern highway. From there, it will flow by gravity to a pumping station to be built in Los Tarajales (El Puertito de Güímar). And from there, wastewater from the Güímar coast will be fed to the existing regional treatment plants. Therefore, according to Francisco Hernández, the treatment plant in Goleta will last no more than a year, which makes investing in it unprofitable.
More than 670,000 euros (initial budget) have already been invested in the construction of the treatment plant in Goleta, and another approximately 300,000 euros for two drilling attempts (the first was unsuccessful). The previous government (CC-PSOE-USP) believed that the treatment plant was necessary to solve the environmental problem and insisted that this was the only possible location for it, as it met all the requirements.