Construction specifications and supervision for La Estrella Water Treatment Plant in Barcelona

The water shortage in Greater Barcelona has recently been exacerbated by an ongoing drought.

Aigües de Barcelona, the private company responsible for managing all aspects of water in the area, has decided to begin extracting groundwater from wells and treating it to produce high-quality drinking water.

Ayesa has been responsible for overseeing the construction of La Estrella Water Treatment Plant, which combines two types of treatment. The first is granular activated carbon filters, used to treat 75% of groundwater, and the other is reverse osmosis, used to treat the remaining 25%. Both treatment lines subsequently merge, with the water being remineralised in calcite beds and disinfected using sodium hypochlorite. The treated water is then pumped at 1 m3/s into the supply network of Aigües de Barcelona.

Ayesa has been involved in all the phases of the treatment plant, from concept generation through to the drafting of construction specifications. It is currently responsible for supervising construction.

The treatment processes used are granular activated carbon filters, cartridge filters, reverse osmosis of brackish water, calcite beds and disinfection using sodium hypochlorite. These are areas in which Ayesa has extensive experience as a specialist water engineering firm.

The new water treatment plant will generate an extra m3/s of drinking water for Greater Barcelona. This, combined with the water treated at plants in Sant Joan Despí and El Besòs as well as those belonging to Aigües Ter Llobregat, will undoubtedly make the city more resilient to serious and prolonged droughts.

Agües de Barcelona operates 6 treatment plants. Each one produces water of the highest quality, which is tested in a laboratory at each stage of the process. These are run from a remote-control centre, which oversees the automatic functioning of their treatment lines.