John Culatto
GIBRALTAR is now running a temporary reverse osmosis (RO) water plant at full power as it tries to fill its reservoirs after the July fire that sparked midsummer water shortages.
The Gibraltar Government ordered the temporary water producing container through its contacts with Balaena, the new owners of Gibdock in the Rock’s historic port.
Local water company AquaGib announced the delivery had arrived on August 10 by land from Italy.
“A lot of work has been done by our personnel to procure the new RO plant from Italy and prepare our site to be able to integrate it into our system,” Managing Director of AquaGib Paul Singleton said.
Now the government revealed that after some technical problems, the temporary plant is operating at 100%.
It will add an extra one million litres a day to the other four permanent RO plants at Governor’s Cottage near Europa Point.
A larger permanent plant is due to open later this year to increase fresh water creation from saltwater on the Rock.
“I am pleased to say that with the temporary RO plant now in operation, I hope to see our stock levels increasing significantly, avoiding the need for any further temporary measures,” Minister for Public Utilities Albert Isola said.
At the same time, AquaGib has reported that some high consumers of water did not enforce the restrictions it imposed on Gibraltar after RO plants were knocked out by the Power’s Drive Tunnel fire.
Although night-time water restrictions were lifted last week, residents are still being asked to save water.
Further Strategic Coordination meetings will follow to try to fully lift the water restrictions still in place.
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