The quality of surface waters –in other words rivers– in 2020 was either excellent or adequate in 97,5% of the control stations located around the Principality. The percentage is of 95% if we only take into account those stations which gave a quality result of excellent or good, better results than those obtained last year and the highest ever registered since sanitization infrastructure has been available.

This was stated and explained, thanks to the latest report carried out, by the Director for the Environment and Sustainability, Silvia Ferrer and the area head of Environment and Sustainability, Laura Coll, who made the presentation marking Global Water Day whose slogan this year is ‘Let´s value water’.

With data in hand, Ferrer highlighted that “the situation of the country´s rivers is extremely satisfactory in part thanks to the work carried out through the Andorran Sanitization Plan that has allowed a visible recovery of the rivers´ quality”. Coll pointed out that, in accordance with the physio-chemical quality, for the fourth straight year there is no station with a very bad quality level and only one with a bad quality level. A trend that is maintained in comparison to previous years, but that has improved considerably with regards to 2005 when the excellent or good quality of water did not arrive to 40%.

The network currently consists of 37 stations and over the last year a total of 403 samples were taken, a slightly lower number than in 2019 due to the lockdown in the months of march and April to avoid possible COVID-19 contaminations. The area head explained that in the present 100% of the water is treated and sanitized. Last year 23,5 million m3 of residual waters were treated, and of this total 69,5% is treated at Edar Sud.

In what concerns the following of the stations that control the biological quality of the surface waters, a progressive improvement is also notable since 2005 with 93% of the stations registering quality between excellent and passable. The biological control is carried out following a calculation index based on the macroinvertebrates in 20 stations of the same network. With regards to fuel spills, throughout 2020 none were detected during the weekly analysis made in the rivers at each of the country´s borders. This is attributed to the awareness campaigns carried out over the last few years.

Cleaning of rivers

Besides the following of the physio-chemical and biological quality of the Surface waters, the Environmental and Sustainability Department manages the cleaning service of Andorra´s rivers. The objective of this service is to extract solid residue found in the country´s rivers. Thus, in 2020 a total of 663 kilometers of cleaned rivers was counted with the removal of 12,2 tons of residues, which amounts to a ratio of 18,4 kg/km, far below the 150 kg/km of 2010.

Text: Govern d’Andorra

Andorra Business
Author: Andorra Business

Andorra Business és l’agència de promoció i desenvolupament econòmic d’Andorra. Impulsar sectors clau per a la diversificació de l’economia, captar i acompanyar la inversió estrangera i local, donar suport a les empreses andorranes per ser més competitives, i facilitar l’aterratge al país de noves empreses, són algunes de les nostres prioritats.