2020 Sustainability Report |A decade for us to transform | 157 Low-cost purification technologies for sanitation Water quality and wastewater reuse in small towns Another leading project in 2020 was the Life With the ultimate aim of improving citizens' quality of Phoenix project which is being developed in Andalusia life, Aqualia presented the Life Intext project in Talavera and Portugal to address the re-use of wastewater de la Reina, Toledo at the beginning of the year. at a European level. It also enables us to face the In Spain only 65% of municipalities with between growing threat posed by emerging pollutants and 2,000 and 10,000 inhabitants have suitable water microplastics in our waters. treatment. The problem particularly affects Castile- The Esquilón II Deposit in Puerto de la Cruz (Tenerife) La Mancha, where 1,300 new suitable sanitation also hosted the presentation of a demonstration unit installations are required. This project addresses to combat nitrates in water, a project that will resolve the problem of wastewater in small towns, with a historical problem in the municipality, which had the development of new technologies and the been restricting the recommendation to consume tap improvement and optimisation of existing ones. water by pregnant women and babies aged under As part of its presentation, a media event was held 6 months. that was attended by a number of regional, local and business figures from the autonomous community. Production of new biofertilisers and biostimulants in WWTPs At the end of December Aqualia presented the H2020 Sabana R&D project which is being undertaken together with the Mérida Municipality. The company will build one of the largest microalgae-based wastewater treatment plants in the world in the city of Mérida. The aim is to study the possibility of cultivating microalgae from nutrients contained in wastewater to obtain biomass and subsequently use this as a biofertiliser, biostimulant and/or biopesticide of high agronomic value.