< /a>The largest storm tank in Bizkaia is being completed in the town of Etxebarri and is expected to come into operation next autumn. This infrastructure, which has an investment of €33M, has a capacity of 74,480 cubic meters, which will make it the largest of all those existing in the Basque Country.
The height of the tank is similar to that of a five-story building, it is a large underground tank whose mission is to accumulate excess water (which overflows) from the collectors at times of high rainfall. When the rains stop, the water accumulated in the tank is gradually diverted to the treatment plants, thereby minimizing the volume of dirty water that reaches rivers and the sea without adequate treatment.
The implementation of this new infrastructure will prevent the annual dumping of 1,200 million liters of untreated water and the ultimate goal is to ensure that it runs out of treatment of only 0.5% of the wastewater mixed with rainwater that enters the collectors of the Water Consortium, about 130,000-140,000 million liters per year. In 2013, the tanks already in operation prevented almost 1,700 million liters of mixed rainwater and wastewater from ending up in the natural environment.