Twenty-five years into its citywide water management program, Benidorm uses 18 percent of the region’s water resources, even as the population grows 40 percent and tourist numbers rise 26 percent. With these figures, the city’s mayor and provincial council president, Toni Pérez, aimed to challenge the idea of turismophobia during a roundtable titled Seven Years of Dinapsis Costa Blanca: Sustainability, Digitalization and Tourism, organized in Benidorm by Hidraqua, INFORMACIÓN, and Dinapsis.
The tourist capital of the Costa Blanca has long pursued an integrated water-cycle model, aware that scarce resources and climate change require sustainability expressed through innovation and tight control. Dinapsis Costa Blanca was the first center Hidraqua set up in Spain to test digitalization programs across the drinking-water network, a milestone recalled by Jordi Azorín, the company’s chief executive for the Valencian Community.
Over this period, Benidorm has cut water losses from leaks to 3 percent, while the national average hovers around 15 percent. With its real-world setup, the city is designed to handle population peaks, leaving room to manage every facet. It has also built a quadruple network that includes potable water, wastewater, stormwater, and recycled water, the mayor noted.
And it is precisely in this last area where Benidorm has set the challenge of saving two cubic hectometres of potable water each year by routing recycled water, already used to wash streets and parks, toward private homes for garden irrigation.
The objective was outlined by José Ramón González de Zárate, the councilor for the Water Cycle and Parks and Gardens. We currently divert 5 hm3 of treated water to farmers. Benidorm is a vertical city with many private gardens that rely on potable water. If a network can reach these points, the calculations indicate we could save two cubic hectometres of potable water annually.
The challenge is ambitious, but the company and local and provincial administrations agree there is a solid foundation to achieve it. Ciriano Clemente, Hidraqua’s manager for La Marina Baixa and Alta, said that the path to reuse is mandatory, but before launching any plan a systematic renewal is essential. In the last four years, nearly 17 million has been invested to replace pipes, and digitalization has been a key ally, he added.
Interpreting Data
Dinapsis proved to be the hub that enabled Benidorm to make a qualitative leap in data management and, more importantly, its interpretation. The use of information has extended beyond the simple cycle of water management, empowering new realities such as those seen during the pandemic and driving innovation and the sharing of successful results.
Today there are ten more Dinapsis in Spain, a tool that has demonstrated its value. The business group chose Benidorm as the starting point because there was a clear awareness of the need to maximize every drop of water and because the region understands drought’s social impact. Tourism has memory, Azorín noted.
For this reason, the relationship between water and tourism is guided by sustainability. The director of the Patronato Costa Blanca, José Mancebo, emphasized that data enable predictive models that help destinations prepare, and the autonomous provincial body wants that advantage to reach all municipalities in the province. Costa Blanca and the Valencian Community are already operating under smart systems, and their purpose is to share information openly so that municipalities can coordinate and learn from one another.
Another key factor is financing to accelerate digitalization in water management, supported by the Perte program. Beyond Benidorm, Mancebo pointed to Dubai as an example, and added that in Alicante province towns like Torrevieja, Benissa, and Finestrat are ready to advance along the same path as Benidorm, the province’s tourism capital.