The high price of desalinated water makes its agricultural use unviable in Spain
Spain has some 3,7 million hectares of irrigated land but only 20,000 of them are irrigated with desalinated water since its high price makes its use in agriculture almost unfeasible.
According to the organization Fidex (which includes the 11 largest civil engineering companies), the cost of desalinated water in Spain is 0.8 euro per cubic meter, while water from the reservoirs is paid at 0.1.
Despite this difference, some horticultural areas of Almería and Murcia, with very profitable crops, do use desalinated water, “although the Spanish agricultural sector in general doesn’t have the capacity to pay such a high price”.
Half of the cost of the water produced by a desalination plant is due to the energy and the rest to the amortization of the investment, the plant operation and maintenance, etc.
The vast majority of the desalinated water produced in Spain is dedicated to human supply.
Source: fyh.es