Ecological Transition awards 200 million euros to improve the efficiency of the urban water cycle

A total of 30 projects have been selected with aid ranging from 3.3 to 7.9 million euros per project, benefiting 1,676 municipalities in 16 autonomous communities with a population of 14,742,016 inhabitants. The grants will benefit projects dealing with water management, both in large cities and small rural municipalities, which have submitted grouped projects.

The beneficiaries have been urban water supply operators, and sanitation and treatment services of various types, such as local authorities, public and mixed companies and representatives of the private sector.

The projects - selected on a competitive basis, pursuant to the principles of Article 8.3 of Law 38/2003 of 17 November on General Subsidies - stand out for their high technical quality and their contribution to achieving the objectives of the PERTE for the digitisation of the water cycle.

The actions financed respond to cutting-edge and strategic initiatives that will improve efficiency in the use and management of water in Spain, such as real-time sensing of catchments in the public water domain, controlling consumption through the implementation of smart meters, reduction of drinking water losses, real-time control of wastewater treatment plants and discharges into the public water domain, creation of digital twins and mathematical modelling of networks and hydraulic systems that allow the use of artificial intelligence for system management, as well as the implementation of platforms that integrate the entire water cycle and support sustainable management of water resources and transparency in water management. Comprehensive projects implementing drought and flood action plans will also be funded.

After a period of 10 days to receive submissions and the reformulation of the projects, the final resolution of the call will be made in the first half of November 2023 and the deadline for the completion of the projects will be 31 December 2025, with the possibility of an extension until 1 June 2026 at the latest.

In addition, the second call for PERTE subsidies for the digitalisation of the urban water cycle has been published for an amount of 200 million euros. The amount of aid will range between 500,000 and 10 million euros per project as a general rule, an amount that will vary according to the number of inhabitants of the municipalities in which the actions take place.

The deadline for submission of applications for this second call is 13 December 2023. Likewise, the first PERTE call for irrigation digitalisation projects is now open. With an initial investment of 100 million euros, it will enable efficiency in the use of water, fertilisers and pesticides in the projects that are finally selected nationwide.

Work is also being carried out on other PERTE lines of action. So far, more than 750 million euros had already been enabled at different stages of processing, to which will be added the calls foreseen once the Addendum to the European Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan is approved.

Non official translation