The mayor of San Roque calls on the Junta for the addendum to unblock the treatment plant
Topics San Roque
The San Roque-Los Barrios treatment plant, which will also serve La Línea and Los Barrios, is 35% complete and has had works halted for more than a year. The mayor, Juan Carlos Ruiz Boix, asks the Junta to sign the addendum to the agreement so that the remaining 65% can be put out to tender.
FJCG ·
The San Roque-Los Barrios treatment plant is still unfinished. Works have been halted for more than a year and the project is 35% complete, according to the mayor of San Roque, Juan Carlos Ruiz Boix. The infrastructure will also serve La Línea and Los Barrios.
What is needed to resume the work
The Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (Miteco) has reactivated the initiative after the state company Acuaes formally terminated last March the contract with the awarded company for failing to meet the deadlines and execution conditions. Acuaes also awarded in March the drafting of a completion project.
To continue, the update of the financing agreement that the Junta de Andalucía and the regional public company Arcgisa must sign with the state company needs to be completed. That addendum would update the investment amount and the execution deadlines. The Junta has had the proposal for months and the prior agreement is awaited to begin its processing.
According to Ruiz Boix, the signature would allow the remaining 65% of the work to be put out to tender again, with an approximate amount of 35 million euros and European financing from ERDF funds. The mayor maintains that this part should be completed in less than a year.
The risk for the beaches
The mayor has pointed out that this summer, due to the lack of treatment, high levels of e-coli have been recorded on the beaches of San Roque, although they did not force them to close. Given that the treatment plant will serve a population of close to 100,000 inhabitants, the Council sees a risk that next summer those levels will increase and cause the closure of some beaches in the bay.
Ruiz Boix has lamented that the Campo de Gibraltar is once again abandoned and has stated that other similar actions in the province, such as those in Barbate or Sanlúcar, have already started works after the Junta's actions, while in San Roque they are "dormant". Works began in 2024 and should have finished in 2025.
Who he is calling on
The mayor calls on the Junta's territorial delegate and those responsible for the Regional Ministry of the Environment, at provincial and Andalusian level, to get involved and push the agreement forward. He considers that the Regional Ministry is the competent authority for wastewater treatment and demands that it sign the addendum as soon as possible.