The financing will be allocated to the construction of a new raw water reservoir, valued at over €13 million, which will be put out to tender in the coming months. With this new facility, CAT will double its raw water storage capacity, enhance quality and supply security guarantees, and reduce the energy costs associated with the water intake process.
The Consorci d’Aigües de Tarragona (CAT) has signed a €9,640,000 loan agreement with the Institut Català de Finances (ICF) to finance the construction of the new raw (untreated) water reservoir planned at the Estació de Tractament d’Aigua Potable (ETAP) in L'Ampolla, in the Baix Ebre region. The new storage infrastructure will soon be put out to tender with a total budget of €13,477,441 and an estimated execution period of 13 months.
The financial transaction was formalized on Monday morning with the signing of the loan agreement by the two entities involved. The public promotional bank of the Generalitat de Catalunya was awarded the loan after submitting the highest-scoring bid in the public tender launched last October by the Consorci d’Aigües de Tarragona.
The signing ceremony was attended by CAT’s president, Marc Brunet, who highlighted that “this investment will translate into three main benefits for our member entities: we will have greater supply guarantees in the event of an incident, we will be able to deliver higher-quality water, and we will improve energy efficiency in water intake management.”
“As a public promotional bank, our mission is to place our financing at the service of strategic projects for Catalunya. For this reason, we are proud to help make this new reservoir possible and to do so under favorable financial conditions,” stated ICF’s CEO, Vanessa Servera. “Through the ICF EcoVerda Canvi Climàtic loans, we promote sustainable and innovative investments throughout Catalunya with lower interest rates than those offered by the market, thanks to the subsidy provided by the Departament de Territori, Habitatge i Transició Ecològica,” Servera explained.
The agreement provides for an eleven-year capital repayment term. The loan is subsidized under the ICF EcoVerda Canvi Climàtic credit line, aimed at projects focused on climate change adaptation and mitigation.
A strategic €13 million project
CAT currently operates a raw water reservoir with a storage capacity of 175,000 m³ at the L'Ampolla water treatment plant. The new reservoir has been designed just a few meters from the existing one, on a five-hectare plot recently incorporated into the ETAP site. The new structure will have a capacity of 185,000 m³, enabling the consortium to hold a total of 360,000 m³ of untreated water in L'Ampolla without any change to water intake flows. This volume would make it possible to guarantee water supply to the territory for approximately two days in the event of an incident affecting the river or the intake facilities. The reservoir will cover a surface area of 28,000 m²—equivalent to four football fields.
The construction of this infrastructure will be put out to tender in the coming months for €13,477,441, an amount that will be primarily financed through the loan signed with the ICF. The remaining cost will be covered directly by the consortium through the financial resources allocated in its Investment Plan.