Portal de Lorca
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The removal of the wipes costs more than € 6,000 per year.
The extra costs that these residues suppose to the maintenance of the systems can increase them between 15 and 20%.
The Councilor for Water in the City of Lorca, Angel Mecca, along with Water Manager Lorca, Francisco Quesada, this morning made a call for citizen collaboration to help end the bad habit of some people to throw to the network Of sanitation different urban waste not degradable, that generate multiple incidences in the same.
The Councilor of Water has specifically referred to the case of wet wipes, product of which Aguas de Lorca has to remove each year more than 100 tons that are improperly thrown to the municipal sewers, and captured in the sanitary facilities and sewage treatment plants.
In recent years the use of this type of wet wipes has become widespread.
It is an element that began to be commercialized for babies and has been extended to other uses, such as make-up removers, hand cleaning, substitute toilet paper ... The problem is generated mainly because some of these packages are sold arguing " Biodegradable ", even though they are not, and to be discarded by the toilet end in the municipal network.
For a wipe to decompose requires a period that varies depending on its composition.
The time spent using waste water from the toilets of a house to the treatment plants is usually between 6 and 8 hours, an interval insufficient for the wipes to decompose.
It should be noted that, in the best case, the wipes are broken in shreds that facilitate that they interlace with each other or with other residues (rods, cottons ...) being able to cause great jams and generating incidences in the network.
As a result of the use of wipes, to the depuration station of La Hoya de Lorca, about 100 tons are arriving every year from wipes, which means that each inhabitant of Lorca is discarding a kilo of wipes per year by the sewer.
This amount of wipes arrives at the sewage treatment plant through the sewage water, where they cause problems of antranques in the bars and the pumps of the pre-treatment.
Aguas de Lorca has established a specific system in the treatment plant of La Hoya to eliminate the mass in which these elements are agglutinated.
This amalgam is first eliminated in an automatic grating located at the entrance of the pumping well.
This mechanism was installed at the end of 2012, when it was detected that the presence of the wipes was beginning to affect the equipment of the purifier, causing episodes of arrest very frequently.
The water is then circulated through different filters and screens that were installed in the pretreatment area of ​​the treatment plant.
The presence of these residues has been causing the cleaning of bars, sieves, pumps and other equipment to be made more and more frequently.
We are talking about a work of great importance, because if the pumps are clogged, an untreated wastewater can be discharged.
The problem of the wipes is generating an extra cost in the management of the treatment plant, derived from the increase in the periodicity of the cleaning tasks of equipment, in addition to the expenses in maintenance of pumps and bars, greater energy consumption, as well as Other expenses for the removal and management of waste.
We are talking about a problem that requires the involvement and collaboration of all Lorca, since we have to be aware that only the removal and management of the wipes costs more than 6,000 euros each year, and the extra costs that these waste entails to maintenance Of health systems can increase them by between 15 and 20%.
All this would be avoided if we succeeded in having the simple gesture of throwing the wipes to a wastebasket.
The Edil de Agua has asked citizens doing this misuse not to use the toilet as a wastebasket to throw sticks, wipes etc., as they will save on water consumption, avoid sewerage in the sewer system and contribute to the Purified water is of better quality and is in more favorable conditions for its reuse.
Waste Container with wipes
Automatic conveyor belt conveyor removing wipes
Source: Ayuntamiento de Lorca
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