At the National Water Congress in Elche on 11 September 2026, the President of the Generalitat, Juanfran Pérez Llorca, publicly challenged the Spanish government to stop financing water infrastructure in Morocco and instead protect the Tajo-Segura inter-basin transfer that supplies the province of Alicante, according to Todo Alicante.
Key takeaways
- Pérez Llorca called on Pedro Sánchez's government to end public support for Moroccan water projects and defend the Tajo-Segura transfer, reported Todo Alicante.
- Spain is already financing a 340 million euro desalination plant in Casablanca through public loans backed by the Spanish Export Credit Agency and the Foreign Investment Fund, Todo Alicante reported.
- Point 54 of the December 2025 Morocco-Spain joint declaration extends that support to desalination, inter-basin transfers and wastewater reuse projects, Todo Alicante noted.
- The Ministry of Ecological Transition's new Tajo basin plan reduces flows sent south to Alicante, according to Todo Alicante.
What happened
Pérez Llorca used the inauguration of the National Water Congress in Elche on 11 September 2026 to argue that Spain's foreign water-financing policy is the reverse of its domestic water strategy, Todo Alicante reported. He said the government is extending credit lines to Morocco for desalination, inter-basin transfers and wastewater reuse while the Ministry of Ecological Transition has trimmed contributions to the Tajo-Segura transfer that supplies southeast Spain.
The headline figure from the speech is the 340 million euros Spain is already committing to a desalination plant in Casablanca, backed by the Spanish Export Credit Agency and the Foreign Investment Fund, Todo Alicante said. The policy framework is set out in point 54 of the joint declaration issued after the XIII Morocco-Spain High-Level Meeting on 4 December 2025, which commits Spain's financial instruments to "structural water infrastructure (desalination, inter-basin transfer, reuse of wastewater)" for Morocco, Todo Alicante reported.
Quoting Pérez Llorca directly, Todo Alicante wrote: "It is nonsensical to send 6,000 cubic hectometres to Portugal that neither needs nor even asked for it, or to financially support Morocco for the construction of transfers like the one they want to destroy here." He warned that the new Tajo basin plan "cuts volumes" of the Tajo-Segura transfer "for purely political reasons, without a single technical report to support this cut, putting belief before science," according to Todo Alicante.
| Item | Reported figure |
|---|---|
| Spanish-backed desalination plant, Casablanca | 340 million euros in public loans |
| Spanish credit support | Spanish Export Credit Agency and FIEX |
| Morroco-Spain policy basis | Point 54, joint declaration of 4 December 2025 |
| Domestic water targeted for cuts | Tajo-Segura inter-basin transfer to Alicante |
Specification read
The reported Casablanca commitment is a single 340 million euro new-build desalination plant. In buyer units that is one train sized for a major coastal city's municipal and industrial base, in the general range of 100,000 to 400,000 m³/day of product water (general industry range, not from the sources). A project of that class typically runs screening and pre-treatment, then seawater reverse osmosis with energy recovery, then post-treatment such as calcite contactors or remineralisation, with brine outfalls handled to meet Moroccan discharge rules, and is the procurement package that would sit alongside the reused-water and inter-basin transfer lines the same joint declaration names.
For operators on the Spanish side, the Tajo-Segura pipeline that Pérez Llorca says is being trimmed, and the reuse elements named in the same December 2025 declaration, both rely on the same downstream train: biological treatment followed by tertiary filtration and disinfection, with membrane bioreactors increasingly used where space is tight or discharge consents are tight, as in water purification packages and MBR membrane systems. If your plant is a medium-size municipal works in the 5,000 to 50,000 m³/day range, with BOD in the 200 to 400 mg/L band and rising reuse or salinity limits from a regional basin authority, this is what it means for you: the financial and political weight is shifting toward seawater desalination and reuse, so any upgrade plan should be specced for high-recovery RO and reuse-ready tertiary, not conventional clarification alone. Buyers comparing packaged biological trains for similar coastal hotel and resort flows can look at Packaged MBR STP for a Casablanca Hotel (2026 Buyer's Guide) and the chemicals-sector comparison at MBR vs Conventional Activated Sludge for Chemicals Wastewater in East Saint Louis (2026 Guide).
FAQ
What is the headline figure from the Elche speech? Spain is already financing a 340 million euro desalination plant in Casablanca through public loans, with cover from the Spanish Export Credit Agency and FIEX, as reported by Todo Alicante.
What infrastructure is the Spanish government cutting domestically? The Ministry of Ecological Transition's new Tajo basin plan reduces contributions to the Tajo-Segura inter-basin transfer that supplies the province of Alicante, Todo Alicante reported.
How big is a 340 million euro desalination plant in m³/day? A project of that budget class typically delivers product water in the 100,000 to 400,000 m³/day range (general industry range, not from the sources); the sources only state the 340 million euro envelope.
What treatment stages are named in the Morocco-Spain policy? Point 54 of the December 2025 joint declaration names desalination, inter-basin transfers and reuse of wastewater, Todo Alicante reported.
