The Sustainability department of the Gipuzkoa Provincial Council, in collaboration with the Gipuzkoa Water Consortium, will build a new water treatment infrastructure and a reservoir to supply drinking water to homes in Beizama and Nuarbe. The basic water supply infrastructures of the Urola Kosta region have been in operation for years, but the treatment in municipalities still supplied by groundwater is "very basic," and new European regulations demand stricter quality parameters.
The project for the water supply of Beizama and Nuarbe has been drafted by the company Sestra, with a budget of 1,928,449 euros and an execution period of fourteen months. The Council of Deputies approved this project on June 2nd, and the preliminary procedures for the works are underway.
The main objective of the work will be to supply quality drinking water to the urban center of Beizama, the Elizalde neighborhood, and the Nuarbe neighborhood. To achieve this, in Beizama, the Iturburu water reservoir will be adapted and slightly enlarged, and next to it, a Drinking Water Treatment Station will be built. "It will be like a small treatment plant, an autonomous unit with filters, whose objective will be to guarantee the quality of drinking water within the parameters set by the regulations," explained Mikel Zubizarreta, head of Gipuzkoako Urak.
From the Iturburu reservoir, the urban center of Beizama and Elizalde will be supplied with drinking water. Later, water will be distributed to all houses along the road to Nuarbe, up to the Orbegozo house. To transport water from Beizama to Nuarbe, a reservoir will be built next to the Illaun Bernizaketa factory, and from there the water will be directed to Nuarbe; another reservoir is also planned in this neighborhood. Consequently, two new reservoirs will be built, but once the entire infrastructure is operational, two existing reservoirs, Aitzalde and Nuarbe, will be demolished.
Water will be collected from several springs, and the treatment for each spring will be automated to distribute the highest possible quality water. The Ibai Eder reservoir will not be used to supply Beizama and Nuarbe because the water there is raw and would require a more complex treatment process. Furthermore, as the urban center of Beizama is located above the reservoir, the water would have to be pumped uphill and then released downhill, which would be illogical and more costly.
“"The reservoir contains raw water; when it rains, it's very dirty, and when it doesn't rain, it's cleaner. All water, however, must be treated, more or less, to meet regulatory parameters."
The filling level of the Ibai Eder reservoir was 80.5% yesterday, the lowest in the last five years. The reservoir's infrastructures are "high-level," meaning the water must be transported to a treatment plant before being distributed to the supply network. The treatment plant for Ibai Eder is located in Oñati, Azpeitia, supplying areas like Orio, Getaria, and Zarautz. In contrast, at the Urkulu reservoir, the dam and the treatment plant are adjacent, making it illogical to transport treated water back kilometers to Beizama or Nuarbe.
