What is happening about plans for a desalination plant on the eastern Costa del Sol?

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Work to the facility, which will be used for irrigation and domestic supply and whose cost is estimated at 100 million euros, cannot begin until the draft project is completed

Chus Heredia

Malaga

Tuesday, 23 December 2025, 17:03

The project for the desalination plant on the eastern Costa del Sol continues to be delayed. The ball is currently in the court of public water company Axaragua and the farmers, who have formed a single entity to manage the future facility, which will help meet the needs of domestic supply and irrigation in the Axarquía. In fact, half of the supply, 12 million million cubic metres per year, will be destined for domestic use, while the other half will irrigate farms and subtropical fruit plantations in the area.

The draft project is being complicated by the cost of determining the site and securing issues such as energy supply. Until the document is finalised, Acuamed, the state-owned water company, will not be able to start the process. It should have been finished before summer 2025, but these and other issues are delaying it and there are no plans to finalise it soon.

It should be remembered that the need for domestic supply in the Axarquía is around 22 million cubic metres. The main sources are La Viñuela reservoir and the Chíllar river wells in Nerja, which were of great help during the recent drought, as were the water transfers from Malaga city, which reached up to 270 litres per second.

Recycled water is also produced in the treatment plants at a volume of up to 21 million cubic metres per year. Up to now, slightly less than half is used for agricultural, mainly subtropical, irrigation, but saline intrusion is a problem for the network. In addition, the process is in full swing to extend the reservoirs for distribution and storage.

State-owned

The association of irrigators was constituted in 2023 as a central board and in this case have partnered with the water company as the final 'customers' of this project. However, it was not until July 2024 that the Council of Ministers entrusted the company to take charge of this work of general interest, the cost of which is estimated at around 100 million euros. It is the state-owned company that acts as financier and promoter: it advances the money and takes charge of all the processing and supervision, as well as being the owner of the infrastructure. But it is the users who then pay back the money over a 50-year period.

The plant was originally intended to be located on land determined by the Junta de Andalucía and Vélez-Málaga town hall in the area around the current waste water treatment plant and El Ingenio shopping centre, about two kilometres from the coast and on the bank of the Río Vélez. However, the site known as Las Campiñuelas, on the Camino de Torrox, in Vélez-Málaga, has now been chosen.

In January 2025, Acuamed contracted a consultancy firm to supervise the draft project. The deadline was 18 months and the tender specifications stated that the desalination plant would have a nominal capacity of up to 25 million cubic metres per year, which could be doubled with an eventual expansion.

Malaga province currently has a seawater desalination plant in Marbella, which started functioning in 2005 and has recently been modernised. It produces 20 million cubic metres per year. In addition, Acosol has begun procedures for a second plant with a similar capacity, which could be located between Mijas and Fuengirola, although other sites closer to Malaga city are not ruled out. Malaga has also been treating inland water at El Atabal since 2005.