2022 Report

Water

A basic resource for life

Imagen Water Solutions

26% of the world's population does not have access to safe drinking water, while 46% lacks access to safely managed sanitation. The situation is worsening due to global warming, which increases the urgency of finding sustainable solutions to mitigate its effects.

ACCIONA's water business is committed to innovation and the application of cutting-edge technologies, as well as to operational quality. The company treats, purifies, reuses, desalinates, and manages water for more than 100 million people in more than 30 countries around the world under demanding quality and efficiency standards.

ACCIONA works to ensure water management and universal access.

ODS 06

Integrated water cycle: sustainable availability

The company processes, treats, reuses, desalinates, and manages water for more than 100 million people in more than 30 countries around the world, meeting demanding quality and efficiency standards.

+100 million

people have benefited from our water services to date

WATER HARVESTING 01 DESALINATION 02 PURIFICATION 03 DISTRIBUTION 04 Obtaining water from different sources Treatment of water for human consumption Maintenance of the water distribution network DRAINAGE 05 Maintenance of the sanitation network TREATMENT 06 Removal of physical, chemical and biological pollutants from wastewater to optimum quality for return to the environment. REUSE 07 Tertiary treatment for the use of water in agriculture, urban parks and other activities. Removal of salt and other minerals from seawater or brackish water to make it suitable for irrigation or human consumption.

Key figures

2021 2022
Turnover (million €) 1,052 1,272
EBITDA (million €) 100 89
Treated water (hm3) 1,030 1,149

Our long-term ambitions

Goal Result
Water We will significantly increase the supply of quality water and its sustainable use through the application of high technologies.
Biodiversity We will follow the latest available standards to measure our impact on biodiversity, designing systems that generate net positive natural capital.
Sustainable transformational innovation We will use the latest technologies to reduce the intensity of emissions generated by the electricity consumption of water treatment plants, as well as systems that help expand access to safe drinking water.
Regenerative ecosystems We will implement work programs, initiatives, and collaborative projects that will multiply our company's ability to develop or improve regenerative solutions.
Sustainable difference in every project We will have a regenerative impact recognized by third parties in areas suffering from climate change and water stress.

Our water solutions

Desalination

75% of our planet's surface area is covered by water, yet access to water is at risk. The main reason is that only 2.3% is fresh water and, out of this percentage, only 0.3% is accessible to the population to be used for its supply. The rest is saltwater.

The impact of global warming on the planet is causing an increasing number of areas to experience water scarcity. More than 3 billion people, a figure equivalent to 40% of the world's population, are affected daily by the scarcity of access to drinking water and the lack of adequate sanitation and hygiene. Faced with this global challenge, ACCIONA has positioned itself as a leader in the desalination sector.

+ 5.8 M

m3/day treated in desalination plants

PROGRESS IN 2022

  • In 2022, the volume of water treated by ACCIONA in water-stressed countries amounted to 545 hm3, representing 47% of the total water treatment activity for ACCIONA customers.

Purification

One third of the world's population still lacks access to drinking water. In a situation aggravated by the climate emergency, ACCIONA is developing water treatment solutions to make it safe or fit for consumption. We are designing water treatment infrastructures, adding to the facilities already built to provide a framework for safe access to more than 41 million people around the world.

+ 125

drinking water treatment plants with a total capacity of 7.5 million m3/day

PROGRESS IN 2022

  • ACCIONA will operate more than fifteen water treatment plants in La Rioja. Within the batch, the Oja DWTP (located in Ezcaray) supplies a total of 1,704,406 m3 of drinking water to all the municipalities in the subsystem.

1,704,406 m3

in the municipalities of the subsystem

Treatment

Two billion people in the world lack basic sanitation services. In addition, more than 80% of the wastewater used by humans is discharged into rivers and seas without prior treatment. In response, ACCIONA uses innovative treatments in the development of water treatment projects, including biological treatment processes, sludge minimization and reuse of treated water.

330

WWTP

27 M m3/day

capacity

+ 100 M

people served

PROGRESS IN 2022

  • ACCIONA will build and operate three wastewater treatment plants (Madinah-3, Buraydah-2, and Tabuk-2) in Saudi Arabia, which together will provide 440,000 m3/day of treated water to serve a total population of 2.1 million inhabitants.

Water reuse

ACCIONA is researching innovative technologies in the field of water reuse to design sustainable solutions for agriculture, urban parks and other activities. The company is constantly researching technological breakthroughs for the reuse of wastewater to enable greater use of treated water.

55%

of the water used in the facilities comes from recycled and reused rainwater.

PROGRESS IN 2022

  • At four WWTPs in Egypt, ACCIONA has managed to reuse for irrigation a quantity of treated water equivalent to that which would be generated by a population of 500,000 inhabitants.

Ongoing projects

Desalination

Collahuasi Desalination Plant

Chile

In 2022, ACCIONA was awarded the construction and operation of the Collahuasi desalination plant in Chile. The desalination plant at Puerto Patache will have an initial capacity of 1,050 liters/second. The works include the execution of marine works, a pretreatment system, as well as the development of reverse osmosis and post-treatment technology to ensure the availability of water resources.

Image Collahuasi Desalination Plant

1,050

liters/second initial capacity

Meet the project

Treatment

Madinah-3 WWTP

Saudi Arabia

ACCIONA will be responsible for the development, design, financing, construction, operation, and maintenance for 25 years of the Madinah-3 (Medina) wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). It will have a capacity of 200,000 m3 per day (expandable to 375,000 m3 per day) to treat urban wastewater.

ACCIONA will also build 23 km of recycled water collectors for irrigation, three storage tanks and their respective recycled water pumping stations.

Image Madinah-3 WWTP

440,000

m3 capacity per day

2.1 M

inhabitants served

Meet the project

Water reuse

Moratalla WWTP

Spain

ACCIONA has implemented an ultrafiltration system at the Moratalla WWTP in Murcia, Spain, to improve tertiary treatment at the plant. This ensures compliance with the new limits proposed by the European Union on reuse, and part of this water can go to agricultural irrigation.

Image WWTP Moratalla

4,500 m3/d

treatment capacity

Meet the project
Transportation Social