The administrative council of Acuamed yesterday approved the contracts granted to build three new desalination plants: in Torrevieja (Alicante), Aguilas (Murcia), and Bajo Almanzora (Almeria). Jaime Palop, the president of Acuamed (photo, left), and the general director of the Water Policies department of the ministry of the Environment, stated that the decision was "historic." Altogether the three plants will cost over €722 million with €297 million being spent on the Torrevieja installation that will be the biggest in Europe. Construction on the three plants is expected to begin towards the end of this year, and all three are expected to be working by 2008.

Together, the three new plants are capable of supplying the needs of 1.6 million domestic users, but the majority of the annual capacity of 150 cubic hectometres will be used to water agricultural land in Alicante's Vega Baja and Aguilas areas as well as more than 12,000 hectares in the province of Almeria. The rest will be used to guarantee domestic water supplies for 600,000 people.

Meanwhile, the Valencian Farmers' Association AVA yesterday formally demanded that the government "do something positive" in order to help their members' problems due to lack of water. The request from the association also asked that the government do away with the Value Added Tax for farmers "as financially and agriculturally they have suffered enough." AVA president Cristobal Aguado added: "It does seem quite incredible to me that in a country as civilised and developed as ours, no solution has been offered to the water problem because the politicians have made it part of their electoral campaigns."