Formentera submits plans to implement Es Ca Marí sanitation grid with funding from ITS

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Formentera submits plans to implement Es Ca Marí sanitation grid with funding from ITS

The Consell de Formentera has answered a yearly call for proposals for Promoting Sustainable Tourism (Impuls del Turisme Sostenible) with plans to implement a sanitation grid in Ca Es Marí. According to Alejandra Ferrer, vice president and councillor of tourism, projects associated with the Sustainable Tourism Tax (Impost de Turisme Sostenible, ITS) are crucial for the island because they "create the possibility of special funding for projects like the Es Ca Marí sanitation grid. This is a very important request by area residents and will reduce our reliance on outfalls and move us towards the 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), namely around clean water and sanitation".

This project will provide this nexus of tourism with a sewerage system in which waste water is treated at the local treatment plant and pulled from the irrigation pond to irrigate the island's fields and close the water cycle.

The works will cost an estimated €1.5 million, with the Consell de Formentera covering 16% (€250,000) and requesting that the remaining 84% (€1.25 million) be paid for with funding from the ITS. Plans will be carried out in three phases: winter 2022, winter 2023 and 2023-2024.

1. Phase "zero", currently planned for 2022: land acquisition (€250,000).
2. Phase one, currently planned for 2023: canals inside the town (€500,000).
3. Phase two, currently planned for 2024: pumps and remaining canals (€500,000).

The Consell de Formentera and Es Ca Marí Residents' Association have held several meetings in which both parties agreed on the primacy of a sewage system where waste water generated in Es Ca Marí can be sent to the island's water treatment plant to close the water cycle using the tertiary water irrigation pond to irrigate local fields.

Developing the "Planned execution of the municipal sewage network for Es Ca Marí settlement area (phase one)" project required a one-off modification of the Territorial Island Plan (Pla Territorial Insular, PTI), including a rezoning of the land in question.

Among the objectives of this and other ITS-funded projects are:

- Climate change mitigation and adaptation: replacing existing materials with more efficient and sustainable ones. The initiative will safeguard against leaks, clogging and rainwater permeability, and ensure that the general pump reaches, first, Formentera's waste water treatment plant, and second, the irrigation pond, where it can reused by the local primary sector.
- Sustainable blue economy, marine biodiversity and marine science: improving the quality of waste water and how it is used to reduce the amount of water leaving the outfall and protect marine biodiversity.
- Circular economy: under current plans, the local irrigation pond will be supplied with waste water, thus closing the water circle on Formentera, decreasing consumption of water from the desalination plant and reducing the amount of water entering the sea from outfalls. For this to be possible, water that reaches the irrigation pond must be high quality, and improving the irrigation pond will benefit the local primary sector as well as locally grown produce and locally made items.


8 September 2022
Communications Office
Consell de Formentera