Wastewater treatment suffers in 2014 Spanish budget

Published on October 10, 2013 04:41 by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network in Government

Spain's 2014 budget, which the government claims "opens the door to economic recovery," increases overall water infrastructure investment but reduces spending on wastewater treatment.

The agriculture and environment ministry has earmarked €2.28 billion for water infrastructure investment, 3.5% more than in 2013. Of this, only €817 million will go towards improving water quality - including new WWTPs - with the bulk reserved for new dam-building projects, environment secretary Federico Ramos told parliament today.

The ministry's own budget for water quality is €156 million, down 10.9% on the 2013 figure. The ministry's dependent water companies have a €661 million budget - also lower than last year - which will be spent mainly on sewerage and WWT infrastructure.

The 2007 water quality plan, which is behind schedule, was designed to ensure compliance with European directives by 2015. Opposition Socialist party spokeswoman Maria José Rodriguez said the budget "does not give us the tools to comply."

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