poster - International Conference of Agricultural Engineering

The experience of using purified wastewater for irrigation in the
Marina Baixa Coast County (Alicante, Spain). Proposal of future
hydric design plans.
Macarena Cavestany 3 , José J. Ferrán 1 , Carlos M. Ferrer 1 , Modesto Pérez 3 , Miguel
Redón* 1 , Francisco J. Sanchez 1 , Elvira Santamaría 2 , Juan B. Torregrosa 1 , Francisco
J. Zapata 2
1 Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Departamento de Ingeniería Rural y Agroalimentaria.
Camino de Vera s/n 46022 Valencia. miresan@agf.upv.es
2 Conselleria de Agricultura, Pesca, Alimentación y Agua. Generalitat Valenciana, Alicante,
España.
3 Vaersa, Alicante, España.
Abstract
This paper will explore the experimentation and real problematic of using purified wastewater
for irrigation. A semiarid region located in the east of Spain is chosen as a field study where
a powerful tourist sector must coexist with the agricultural activity. The mutual relationship
between them will preserve the landscape achieving the social, economic and environmental
sustainability of the area.
Keywords: Irrigation, agriculture uses, purified waste water
1. Introduction
Marina Baixa County presents a historical lack of hydric resources as most of Spanish east
coast counties; Medio y Bajo Vinalopo, L´Alacantí y Vega Baja (Fig. 1). Besides the scarcity
of water, it is worthy to mention the marked torrential regime that characterises the
precipitation events in this area (Twort et al., 2000).
The historic irrigation surface of the Marina ,Baixa region is about 5.000 ha. Because of that,
in the 60’s, two reservoirs: Amadorio and Guadalest of 15 hm 3 each one, were built for
irrigation purposes (Quereda Sala, 1978). However, as new economic activities are being
developed in the area, agriculture water resources have been forced to seek new water
sources .
FIGURE 1: Situation map