The Councillor for Water of the Government of the Canary Islands, Manuel Miranda, has announced that the future desalination plant in Matas Blancas, in Pájara, will integrate renewable energies and industrial utilisation of brine. The project, which already has a defined location, anticipates an initial capacity of 15,000 cubic metres per day.
The Councillor for Territorial Policy, Territorial Cohesion and Water of the Government of the Canary Islands, Manuel Miranda, has revealed the details of the future desalination plant in Matas Blancas, in the municipality of Pájara, which will become a benchmark for its integration with renewable energies and the utilisation of brine. The infrastructure, as explained by Miranda, has evolved from its initial conception and is now envisioned as an innovative model that combines water production with clean energy generation and the creation of an industrial hub around the valorisation of the waste from the desalination process.
The project, which is already included in the Hydrological Plan of Fuerteventura, is in the phase of drafting the basic project, a preliminary step before environmental processing and obtaining the necessary sectoral authorisations prior to its tendering. Miranda set the horizon of 2028 as the date by which a definitive project could be available. The plant, in its first phase, will have a production capacity of 15,000 cubic metres per day, with the aim of reaching 30,000 cubic metres in later phases, which would make it one of the main supply infrastructures on the island.
The councillor highlighted that the anticipated growth will even require considering water intake from the open sea in later phases, due to the production volume. The initiative, developed in collaboration with the Technological Institute of the Canary Islands, aims not only to increase water production in the south of Fuerteventura but also to generate economic activity around brine, a by-product that has traditionally been dumped at sea and which is now intended to be industrially utilised.
Miranda framed this project within the need to strengthen the hydraulic infrastructures of Fuerteventura in light of population growth and the increasing pressure on resources. In his view, the population increase necessitates planning new investments to prevent situations of tension in both supply and wastewater treatment from arising again. In this context, he advocated for the need to maintain constant investment in hydraulic infrastructures and called for greater involvement from the State in financing major works of general interest.
The councillor recalled that the Canary Islands Executive considers the annual contribution of 20 million euros allocated to the Canaries to be insufficient and reiterated the demand for a specific state agreement on hydraulic works that would allow the execution of large desalination plants, treatment plants, and other strategic infrastructures included in both state legislation and the Statute of Autonomy. The Matas Blancas desalination plant thus emerges as a key project to ensure water supply in the south of Fuerteventura, an area with high tourist and agricultural demand.
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