The Generalitat de Catalunya said a new drinking water treatment plant in Sant Feliu de Llobregat was inaugurated on Friday, adding capacity to treat 1,000 litres of water a second. For households and businesses in Greater Barcelona, that means extra drinking water entering the network at a time when drought resilience remains a live concern.

The new La Estrella ETAP, the Catalan acronym for a drinking water treatment plant, was built by Veolia and is operated by Aigües de Barcelona. According to the Generalitat press office and project information published by engineering firm Ayesa, the plant provides an additional 1 cubic metre a second of drinking water, equivalent to 1,000 litres a second.

"The new water treatment plant will generate an extra m3/s of drinking water for Greater Barcelona," Ayesa says in its project description.

Extra supply for the Barcelona area

Ayesa states that the plant is intended to improve Greater Barcelona's resilience during severe and prolonged drought. That matters directly for residents because the extra treated water supports day-to-day domestic use, from taps and cooking to cleaning, while also helping maintain supply to local businesses and services.

The available source material does not set out how many households will be served by the new line, but it does specify the added treatment volume and its purpose within the wider supply system.

  • Location: Sant Feliu de Llobregat, in the Baix Llobregat area
  • New capacity: 1,000 litres a second, or 1 cubic metre a second
  • Operator: Aigües de Barcelona
  • Builder: Veolia
  • Inauguration: Friday, according to the Generalitat press office report cited in the source material

Part of wider drought measures

Other source material on the La Estrella site describes work to extend reverse osmosis at the Estrella wells in Sant Feliu de Llobregat. A later report from Vilapress also said the upgraded facilities were intended to give municipalities in Baix Llobregat and Barcelonès higher-quality, safer and more sustainable water, and to reuse 100% of the available water at the plant.

Those later reports are not the basis for the inauguration itself, which is attributed here to the Generalitat de Catalunya press office as the primary source. But they do align with the broader aim described by Ayesa: increasing supply security for the Barcelona metropolitan area during drought.

Readers seeking official information on Generalitat announcements can check the Generalitat press office, which is the primary issuer cited for the launch.

Primary sources: Generalitat de Catalunya. Reported by Source Text Link, herraizsoto&co., Vilapress, smartwatermagazine.com, Unidad Editorial Internet, tappwater.co, aiguesdebarcelona.cat, es.linkedin.com, Albert Martínez, lavanguardia.com, iagua.es, larazon.es, Europa Press Barcelona.