Seepage wells, a technique for recovering rainwater in cities

Supported by the European Union, this project has been carried out on Avenida de la Cruz Roja and the four surrounding streets since 2019, its work includes renovating water supply and sanitation networks, lighting, increasing trees and placing urban and urban elements. technological It will allow the temperature to be lowered by up to ten degrees in three rooms in the area..

Juan Luis López Martínez, Civil Engineer of the Seville Metropolitan Water Supply and Sanitation Company (Emasesa), explained to the Efe news agency that the elements used to recover rainwater were well leaks installed during work in the area. Red Cross street.

Seepage wells are part of “Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDs) that aim to manage 80 percent of rainwater more efficiently,” that is, it seeps into the ground all the rainwater and transports it from there to the wells that take it to the groundwater tablelocated at a shallow depth.

To make it In the renovation of the sidewalks on the streets, “permeable cobblestone with the joint placed on the gravel layer” is used.When it rains, López Martínez has water filtered through the cobblestone and stored in a layer of gravel.

From there it “is taken through a drainpipe to infiltration wells about three and a half meters deep for storage, and from there it seeps little by little into the soil.”

Like this, Most of the water that falls with the rain does not go directly to the plumbing pipes, but “back to the ground”.

In this way, the entire street “increases ground permeability and returns water to the ground”, rather than having zero permeability, which usually occurs due to the placement of cobblestone, pavement, or agglomerated pavement on any given street.

According to Easesa engineer, rainwater “was lost by the wide sidewalks of the streets in the cities” and Seville is no exception.

With this technique, “refilling of underground aquifers” is achieved.

López Martínez emphasized that: water falling in normal condition at the moment “goes to the sanitary system, from there goes to a discharge point and from there reaches the treatment plant”, with this “it is not recycled to the land”.

Bring back the natural water cycle

It heals with the construction of seepage wells and in a certain way “It goes back to its natural state because before the land was urbanized, when the water fell, it would go back to the land.Because natural soil is much more permeable than urbanized soil,” he said.

However, “the natural water cycle that the street had before urbanization” is reverted.

It is one of the application techniques. LIFE Watercool project co-financed by the European Unionaiming to provide water, energy saving and thermal comfort in a few private rooms such as the bus stop, one in the training center and the other in the square in front of it.

These achievements will be achieved through the use of technology implemented by the University of Seville Thermotechnics department working in partnership with Emasesa, Seville City Council, technology company Alten and Efeverde from Efe agency in the LIFE Watercool project.

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Contact address of the environment department: [email protected]