The Costa del Sol, European leader in golf irrigation with treated water

The Costa del Sol is not only a leading golf tourist destination in Europe and the Mediterranean, but it is also at the forefront in an important environmental aspect: the irrigation of golf courses with reclaimed water.

The public company Acosol, owned by the Mancomunidad de Municipios de las Costa del Sol Occidental, made up of eleven localities in a strip of almost 100 kilometers (Benahavís, Benalmádena, Casares, Estepona, Fuengirola, Istán, Manilva, Mijas, Marbella, Ojén and Torremolinos), is the company that supplies the most recycled water in Europe for irrigation of golf courses.

It currently supplies reclaimed water to 36 fields (which together total more than half a thousand holes) of the 53 in the area of the Mancomunidad, for which Acosol uses about 7 cubic hectometers (7,000 million liters) annually.

In addition, it is investing millions of dollars to expand the radius of action of its recycled water supply network so that in the near future it will be able to supply practically one hundred percent of the golf courses in the Costa del Sol territory covered by the aforementioned Mancomunidad.

Although the new regulations existing in the different autonomous communities of Spain mostly regulate that new golf courses must be irrigated with recycled water and that existing golf courses must also be irrigated with recycled water as far as possible, in practice this requirement is not always easy to comply with, since it is subject to the existence of nearby treatment plants and pipelines that carry the water to the golf course. In any case, these are costly infrastructures, both for the facilities themselves (treatment plant, pipelines of several kilometers, etc.) and for the money that in many cases is necessary to install them.

The CEO of Acosol, Juan Carlos Fernández-Rañada de la Gándara, assures, in relation to the irrigation of golf courses, that “our idea is to continue advancing in an action that we consider essential when it comes to reusing water resources”.

Obtaining data on golf course irrigation in Spain and other European countries is not an easy task, since there is no entity or body in charge of compiling this information.

In any case, with the information gathered from golf course associations, national and regional federations, public and private companies supplying recycled water and official government agencies, it is fairly certain that Acosol is the public company that supplies the most reclaimed water in Europe to irrigate golf courses.

Other European countries with an important presence of golf facilities (Great Britain, Ireland, Germany, Nordic countries, France, etc.) are fortunate in that, thanks to their climatology, the clouds provide abundant water to the golf courses throughout the year, so they usually do not need extra water supplies, either drinking or recycled, and have enough natural water resources (rivers, wells, reservoirs…), all fed with the abundant rainfall that falls on these territories.

On the other side of the Atlantic, in the United States, the country with the most golfers and golf courses in the world, irrigation with recycled water takes place mainly in Florida, where around 500 courses, 34 percent of the approximately 1,500 courses in this sunny southern state of North America, use this type of water. A study by the National Golf Foundation quantifies the total number of golf courses in the United States that are irrigated with recycled water at 13 percent.

Spain, due to its predominantly dry climate, especially in the areas of greatest golf development (Mediterranean coast), cannot afford to use enormous quantities of water from the public network to irrigate golf courses. This is why the regional administrations are promoting the use of recycled water to supply golf facilities.

Andalusia is the autonomous community with the highest number of golf courses irrigated with treated water. There is even a complex, Alcaidesa Resort, in the Campo de Gibraltar, which invested a large amount of money in the installation of its own treatment plant to obtain recycled water to irrigate its two 18-hole courses. This region has well over a hundred golf courses, of which two thirds, about seventy, are located on the Costa del Sol (in a strip between Nerja and Gibraltar).

GOLF COURSES ON THE WESTERN COSTA DEL SOL IRRIGATED WITH RECLAIMED WATER

1.- La Duquesa Golf & Country Club

2.- Doña Julia Golf Club

3.- Casares Costa Golf

4.- Finca Cortesín Golf Club

5.- La Resina Golf & Country Club

6.- Flamingos Golf Club

7.- Alferini Golf Club

8.- Tramores Golf Club

9.- El Campanario Golf

10.- El Paraíso Golf Club

11.- Atalaya Golf Country Club – Old Course