Sanitation

Sanitation management encompasses the transport of wastewater, through urban drainage networks, to wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) and the subsequent purification of these to return them to rivers in optimal conditions. To take on its task, Canal has a complex system of facilities consisting of municipal sanitation and sewerage networks (collectors and emissaries), sewage pumping stations, storm tanks and waste water treatment plants.

URBAN DRAINAGE NETWORK

We manage a unitary network of municipal and supramunicipal collectors and emissaries and pipelines that collect and transport wastewater from the municipalities to the WWTP. Other facilities that complete the system are EBARs, whose mission is to raise wastewater at points where its transport cannot be carried out by gravity. In addition, we have storm tanks and rolling mills, facilities that are intended to retain the first rainwater, which are the most polluting, minimizing the discharge of contaminated water and flooding.

Storm tanks

Storm tanks are huge underground deposits created to store the first rainwater. In this way, the tanks prevent the treatment plants from exceeding their maximum flow and have to pour the excess, without treating, to the receiving channels. Currently, we manage 65 storm tanks in the Community of Madrid with a storage capacity of more than 1.50 hm3. El Arroyo Fresno Storm Tank es is one of the biggest in the world with a capacity close to 400.000 m³

Reclaimed water

The reclaimed waters are the purified wastewater that, where appropriate, has been subjected to an additional or complementary treatment process, to adapt its quality to the intended use (irrigation of green areas, sports areas and certain industrial uses).

Water is a limited resource and therefore we consider that the reuse of treated wastewater is an essential component of the integral management of the resource and contributes to the net increase in water availability in the region.