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Date Published: 30/01/2023

ARCHIVED - Cabo de Palos waste water pipe still unrepaired a year on

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Installing a new system off the Cartagena coast will cost around 7 million euros

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - Cabo de Palos waste water pipe still unrepaired a year on

It’s been almost a year since the Cala Reona outfall pipe, located in Cabo de Palos, was broken apart by the violent April storms which hit the Region of Murcia, but very little has been done to remedy the situation. While the Cartagena City Council insists it is closely monitoring the waste water being flushed into the Mediterranean from the Cabo de Palos treatment plant as a result, which is within acceptable legal levels, residents are up in arms over the delay.

The problem is that the infrastructure needs to replaced altogether rather than undergoing yet another repair job, a task that will cost upwards of seven million euros and one which none of the administrations want to undertake.

Back in October when repairs were ruled out, the City Council asked the Murcia Region Sanitation and Wastewater Treatment Entity (Esamur) to draw up the construction project and take responsibility for all costs, reasoning that the outfall impacts several other municipalities in the Region and not just Cartagena.

Months on and the negotiations have come to a standstill. The council has also appealed to the Ministry of the Environment to declare the work "of national general interest" but has received no responses to date, aside from a regional government letter stating that "the Community is not competent in the construction of said outfall".

The spring storms last year fragmented more than half a kilometre of the underwater pipe, parts of which were found floating along the Cartagena coast for months afterwards. Previous repair jobs in 2018, 2020 and 2021 cost thousands of euros and failed to protect the infrastructure in the long run.

Despite the council’s insistence that the discharges are being rigorously monitored, several environmental groups have warned that the waste water has resulted in excessive amounts of algae on the Calblanque coast due to nitrogen and phosphorous levels, similar to what occurred in the Mar Menor.

Following previous spillages, the groups have demanded that the outfall pipes be buried "20 metres in the seabed" and that surveillance of the waters be increased to prevent illegal or accidental spills.

See also: Millions of sea snails invade the Mar Menor

Image: Ayuntamiento de Cartagena

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