Ex-Post Evaluation of the Construction of a New Desalination Plant and Enlargement of an Existing Desalination Plant in Águilas, Murcia, Spain

Abstract

This paper illustrates the main results of work in progress for a project that has been funded by the European Commission. Under the supervision of CSIL (Centre for Industrial Studies), it reports the story of the construction of the new desalination plant in Águilas/enlargement of Águilas desalination plant, a project co-financed by the European Union during the programming period 2000-2006. More specifically, this is an ex-post evaluation assessing the long-term effects produced by the investment and aimed at understanding the mechanisms and determinants likely to have contributed to produce these effects. The analysis draws on an ex-post cost-benefit analysis and an extensive set of qualitative evidence, both secondary (official reports, press articles, books and research papers) and primary (site visits and interviews with key stakeholders and experts that were carried out in October and November 2018). The project is considered to be successful overall as it achieved its intended primary objectives. The cost of desalinated water produced by the new plant was €325,274 per cubic hectometer in 2017. When considering its impact on the served population, the final assessment is unambiguously positive, given the measurable effects on employment, diversification of traditional crops and boosting agriculture technology in the area. Besides these effects, interviews with local stakeholders have revealed that additional, complementary water-saving investments are planned on infrastructure for water storage and irrigation modernization as a consequence of this project implementation, assuring the sustainability of this investment for future generations in the Alto Guadalentín county.

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“…Another management problem experienced by most desalination plants has been not reaching their maximum production capacity due to the lack of the required electrical power or an incomplete distribution system [113]. Thus, the Drought Decree also allowed necessary funding for the development of the distribution network, storage capacity, and regulation infrastructure for each desalination plant to be provided, although further investment is still required for the interconnection of the main desalinated water plants in south-east Spain [44,139]. In this respect, during recent years, some desalination plants have constructed their distribution network with irrigation hydrants to supply desalinated water directly to farmers [110].…”