Níjar’s municipal council has granted local special-interest and public-utility status to a planned desalinated-water pipeline promoted by SAT Campo de Níjar, advancing a €2.6 million water-infrastructure project for one of Spain’s largest greenhouse production areas.
The 23 September council announcement says the pipeline would run for almost 9 kilometres and transport up to 4.4 million cubic metres of desalinated water a year from a reservoir in the municipality of Almería to SAT Campo de Níjar’s distribution network.
The €2.6m project adds a second desalinated-water route
The municipality puts the project’s material execution budget at €2.6 million, with about €1.8 million of the works located inside Níjar. The planned connection is intended primarily to improve water availability for agriculture while also creating the option to connect with the municipal drinking-water network once the required administrative authorisations are obtained.
Níjar currently depends almost entirely on the Carboneras desalination plant for municipal drinking water. The council has separately asked the Andalusian regional government for an annual concession of 3.78 million cubic metres from the Mar de Alborán plant for municipal supply; that application remains under review.
Water remains a constraint for the greenhouse economy
The project is commercially relevant because Níjar is a major protected-cropping district. In a March 2025 municipal article, the mayor’s office said the municipality had around 6,000 hectares of greenhouses, with about half certified organic at that time. The 6,000-hectare figure is regional context and is not the service area of the new pipeline.
Water availability is still being presented by the municipality as a near-term challenge. At Fruit Attraction on 6 October, the mayor again cited irrigation-water availability as the sector’s principal issue and referred to the recently approved pipeline as part of the local response.
Municipal approval is not construction start
The September decision gives the project municipal support and includes an eligible construction-tax reduction for the section built within Níjar. The council also plans to seek a regional declaration of interest from the Junta de Andalucía because the infrastructure crosses municipal boundaries.
The official material reviewed by HortiSignal does not identify a construction start date or contractor, and additional authorisations remain relevant before the full scheme can be implemented. The project should therefore be treated as approved at the municipal-support stage, not as under construction.
Why it matters
For greenhouse operators in Campo de Níjar, the business signal is additional water-source diversification rather than immediate new supply. If the remaining approvals and construction proceed, the pipeline would add a route from the Mar de Alborán desalination plant into the agricultural distribution system, reducing dependence on a single desalination source and improving resilience against outages or maintenance.
Key takeaways
- Níjar has granted municipal special-interest and public-utility status to a desalinated-water pipeline promoted by SAT Campo de Níjar.
- The planned line is almost 9 km long, with capacity of up to 4.4 million m³ a year and a €2.6 million execution budget.
- No construction start date or contractor is identified in the official material reviewed; regional approvals are still relevant.
