Francisco Jiménez
Malaga
Wednesday May 3, 2023, 11:06 p.m.
Andalusian golf courses boast about their sustainability measures. Spain is grappling with a drought crisis.
Water use and distribution is a hot topic as another extreme summer approaches. Catalonia tightened water restrictions this week, meaning 495 municipalities had to adhere to strict limits. In Andalusia, reservoirs are also at dangerously low levels due to a lack of rainfall.
To avoid being demonized as a major water consumer, the Royal Andalusian Golf Federation ensured that golf courses were effectively managing their water consumption, while contributing more than 2.2 billion euros to the Andalusian economy and the creation of 52,000 jobs.
The president of the Royal Andalusian Golf Federation, Pablo Mansilla, said the facilities were irrigated with wastewater stored in sewage treatment plants and the golf courses used a type of grass that required minimal watering .
Currently, 80% of golf courses in the province of Malaga and throughout Andalusia use recycled water, he added.
The Costa del Sol was a pioneer more than three decades ago, when in 1989 the Monte Mayor golf course in Benahavís became the first in the region to use recycled water from the Guadalmansa treatment plant in Estepona .
After the development of a third filter provided higher quality water to all plants on the West Coast, 42 sports facilities now use recycled water.
“At present we can say that 80 percent of this irrigation is already carried out with recycled water. Golf is therefore not competing for the use of drinking or conventional water. It transforms water already used by the population into a powerful generator of wealth and employment,” Mansilla said.
Nine out of ten euros spent by golf tourists goes to other businesses and services, he added. Compared to the annual turnover of 220 million euros for the hundred golf courses in Andalusia, direct income from activity and tourism amounts to 2.2 billion euros.
“Compared to the 1.1 million hectares of irrigated agricultural land in Andalusia, the golf course irrigates only 3,500 hectares, of which 80% uses recycled water,” Mansilla said.
“With the allocations included in the Andalusian Hydrological Plans, published in early 2023, the income per cubic meter of irrigation used in the golf course exceeds the income from any other crop and is therefore the most profitable crop of all.”
Water demand, by sector
A study by the Association of Entrepreneurs of the South (Cesur) showed that of the 476 Hm3 that the province of Malaga used each year, only 22.1 (4.6%) were intended for tourism and leisure (golf, parks theme, etc.), compared to 241 Hm3 which was consumed by the agricultural sector and the 206 consumed in urban areas. The remainder was distributed between industrial (3.2) and livestock (2.3) uses.
In this context, the golf courses of the Costa del Sol used barely 10% (6 Hm3 per year) of the recycled water that the treatment plants managed by Acosol were capable of producing.
“The surplus, which is now discharged into the sea, could be used for other purposes,” Mansilla said. He also called for “necessary” public investment in pipelines connecting treatment plants to all golf courses, so more people can use recycled water.
