Nearly 42,000 residents of Cartagena have seen their sanitation system improved thanks to a €3.5 million investment from MITECO.

The Commissioner for the Water Cycle and Ecosystem Restoration, Francisca Baraza, visited this Wednesday the improvement and expansion works at the Las Sirenas Wastewater Pumping Station (EBAR) in Mar de Cristal (Cartagena), one of the 20 projects to improve the municipal sanitation network financed with 3.5 million euros by the General Directorate of Water of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO), which will benefit almost 42,000 inhabitants of a dozen population centers in this municipality.

Baraza has verified the good progress of these projects, carried out by the Cartagena City Council and the concessionaire Hidrogea, with 14 of the 20 initially planned projects already completed.

This €3.5 million allocation is included in line 4.3 of the Framework of Priority Actions to Recover the Mar Menor (MAPMM), which is endowed with €20 million to enable eight municipalities in the watershed to strengthen their sanitation networks and thus prevent potential discharges into the lagoon.

Furthermore, the Spanish government plans to double this 20 million euro allocation with a second phase, primarily focused on stormwater separation. The Royal Decree is currently open for public consultation and provides for an additional investment of 3.5 million euros for the Cartagena municipality.

The twenty projects will cover 6,580 meters of sewer lines and sanitation infrastructure in the following towns: La Manga, La Palma, La Puebla, Mar de Cristal, Los Belones, Islas Menores, Playa Honda, Los Nietos, Los Urrutias, and El Carmolí.

MITECO's commitment to improving the water cycle and irrigation in this municipality also includes the Digitalization PERTE (Perte Digitalization Program), which has benefited from the Cartagena Agua Digital project, Hidrogea (€8.8 million), and the Campo de Cartagena Irrigation Community (€888,400).

CRYSTAL SEA

By locality, the projects with the largest budget allocation are located in Mar de Cristal, where two projects total more than 970,000 euros, allocated to the remodeling and expansion of the Las Sirenas EBAR (489,757 euros) and the renewal of networks in the streets Diagonal, Pintor Rosales and adjacent roads (480,564 euros).

The wastewater treatment plant collects wastewater from three collectors that originate from streets located at lower elevations and pumps it to the main wastewater treatment plant in this coastal town, called Góngora.

The objective of this action is to strengthen the operation and safety of this facility, especially during rainy periods, and to prevent the risk of potential network overflows onto public roads and the entry of these flows into the Mar Menor.

THE MAPMM IN CARTAGENA

Within the MAPMM (Mediterranean Water and Sanitation Project), endowed with 675.05 million euros, MITECO has already implemented actions totaling 14.11 million euros in the municipality of Cartagena. These include the first phase of the adaptation of the mining ravines, the start of the environmental restoration of the Sierra Minera in the Llano del Beal and El Descargador areas, and assistance for flood risk management and prevention.

In addition, the ministry has committed 33.97 million euros to advance these and other initiatives, such as the creation of a Green Belt, which, in the case of Cartagena, consists of a semi-natural wetland (Bocarrambla); the green filters of Torre del Negro, Albujón, and Miranda; and the Renaturalization Areas of Los Nietos-Mar de Cristal, the area around El Carmolí, and the area around Torre del Negro.

Other actions contemplated in the MAPMM include the conservation and environmental improvement of the Albujón and Miranda ravines, as well as the environmental restoration of dunes and the elimination of invasive species in La Manga del Mar Menor and the new outfall and tertiary treatment plant at the Mar Menor Sur WWTP.

Finally, 7 of the 11 Biodiversity Foundation projects for the environmental improvement of agricultural holdings in the watershed are implemented, in whole or in part, in the municipality of Cartagena.