Mercedes Fernández-Couto Gómez has served as Managing Director of EMALSA since 2012. Holding a degree in Law, she has developed her professional career in the field of integrated water cycle management, promoting innovation, sustainability, and the continuous improvement of water supply and wastewater services in the Canary Islands.
As General Manager of EMALSA, how do you think the management of a water utility company such as EMALSA has evolved over the last ten years? Have there been any significant changes?
Over the last decade, water management has changed significantly. It is no longer just about operating infrastructure and ensuring that the service functions properly every day, although that remains essential. Today, a company such as EMALSA must adopt a much broader perspective that encompasses efficiency, digitalization, sustainability, climate change adaptation, transparency, and close engagement with citizens.
A good example of this transformation is the Water Cycle Digitalization PERTE project in which EMALSA participates. The initiative is aimed at improving the efficiency of the urban water cycle in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria through the deployment of sensors across networks and infrastructure, the digitalization of key data, and the use of tools that provide a better and real-time understanding of the system’s status.
In our case, this evolution carries even greater significance because we operate in an island territory with limited water resources and a strong dependence on desalination. From my position as General Manager, I have experienced this transformation as an opportunity to modernize management practices, incorporate new technologies, and reinforce the idea that water is not only a public service but also a strategic resource for the city and its future.
I would also like to highlight something fundamental: the price of water must allow for the recovery of the real costs of the service, because only in this way can we maintain quality standards, renew infrastructure, incorporate innovation, and guarantee the long-term sustainability of the system.
This is also the context in which the 2024–2033 Strategic Plan for Water Infrastructure in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria has been developed. This roadmap is essential for modernizing the system, renewing networks, strengthening production capacity, and advancing toward a more resilient model. For a city like ours, planning the hydraulic infrastructure of the next decade is not an option but a necessity to guarantee water supply, protect the coastline, and prepare for increasingly demanding climate scenarios.
What role does EMALSA play in the city’s water cycle?
EMALSA is involved in every stage that makes it possible for water to reach the city safely and reliably every day. We produce, distribute, and monitor drinking water, while also managing the collection, treatment, and reuse of wastewater. In other words, we are involved in the entire integrated water cycle of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
Beyond the technical dimension, however, I would like to emphasize that we are talking about a service that sustains everyday life in the city. In a territory such as ours, where producing water from the sea is essential to guarantee supply, EMALSA also has a highly relevant industrial dimension. The challenge is to do so with ever-greater energy efficiency while moving toward a more circular model in which water reuse plays an increasingly important role.
The Strategic Plan reinforces precisely this vision of the complete water cycle: not only producing more desalinated water, but also improving its transport, increasing storage capacity, renewing water supply and sanitation networks, promoting new facilities, and progressing toward the goal of zero discharge. It represents a transformation of the city itself, not merely a technical intervention.
EMALSA participates in the European project IDIWATER, which focuses on innovative and sustainable solutions for water management. What does this type of initiative bring to a company like EMALSA, and what lessons have been the most valuable?
Projects such as IDIWATER are important because they allow us to broaden our perspective. A utility company learns a great deal when it shares experiences with other operators, technology centers, universities, public administrations, and innovative companies. These collaborations help us evaluate our own practices, learn about solutions that are already being tested in other environments, and accelerate the adoption of useful tools to improve service delivery.
The main lesson is that innovation must be connected to real needs. In the water sector, innovation means reducing consumption, anticipating incidents, improving network control, making better use of data, increasing water reuse, and enhancing the resilience of the system. It also enables us to showcase the experience that the Canary Islands have accumulated over many years in desalination and water management as a model for other regions facing water stress.
The PERTE project follows precisely this approach: transforming data into a management tool. Smart metering, network sectorization and micro-sectorization, active pressure management, mathematical models for water supply and sanitation systems, flow and water-quality sensors, and the application of artificial intelligence allow us to move from reactive management toward a more predictive approach. This transition is essential for reducing non-revenue water, improving energy efficiency, anticipating incidents, and increasing service transparency.
Your company operates in a territory that is particularly vulnerable to water stress. How would you describe the current water situation in the city? Do you believe this situation is similar in the rest of the major cities of the Canary Islands?
The reality of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is very clear: we live in a territory with limited natural resources, and desalination is essential to guarantee water supply. This capability provides security, but it also entails significant responsibility. We must manage energy costs effectively, maintain and renew infrastructure, reduce network losses, and protect the environment.
For this reason, long-term planning is so important. The 2024–2033 Strategic Plan includes large-scale actions to strengthen system security, including new desalination capacity, strategic storage reservoirs, network renewal, sanitation improvements, stormwater tanks, and new infrastructure designed to respond more effectively to both water scarcity and episodes of intense rainfall.
The digitalization promoted through the PERTE project is also a resilience tool. Having more and better information helps us make faster and better-informed decisions, plan maintenance activities, improve water quality control, prevent discharges into receiving environments, and minimize potential impacts on both the population and the environment.
Across the Canary Islands, we share many challenges: insularity, resource scarcity, demographic and tourism pressures, and the impacts of climate change. However, each island and city has its own particular circumstances, infrastructure, demand patterns, and management models. Therefore, it is important to avoid generalizations, even though there is a common challenge: ensuring water availability in both quantity and quality within an increasingly demanding and uncertain context.
The public often perceives water as a guaranteed resource. Do you think there is still a lack of social awareness about its real value and scarcity?
Yes, we still need to talk more and better about the value of water. When the service operates normally, it is easy to forget everything that lies behind such an everyday action as turning on a tap: professional teams, energy, technology, quality controls, infrastructure, and continuous planning.
In a territory like ours, every drop counts. That is why citizens are also part of the solution. Using water responsibly, reporting potential leaks, and avoiding unnecessary consumption are simple actions that make a difference. At EMALSA, we must continue to manage the service rigorously, but we must also do a better job of explaining what lies behind it in order to build a genuine water culture.
Thanks to desalination, water supply has been guaranteed. In the current context, what do you consider to be the main technological and energy challenges facing this technology?
Desalination has been a guarantee of water security for Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and for much of the Canary Islands. It has enabled us to secure water supplies even in a context of limited natural resources.
The major challenge now is to continue improving its energy efficiency and progressively extend the supply of desalinated water wherever it is technically, environmentally, and economically appropriate. This would help reduce pressure on groundwater resources and reserve them for the uses established by hydrological planning.
Technology has advanced significantly, particularly through reverse osmosis, energy recovery systems, and improved membrane performance. However, we must continue reducing energy consumption, costs, and carbon emissions.
It will also be essential to integrate more renewable energy sources, optimize plant operation, and advance predictive maintenance strategies. Desalination has provided us with water security; the next step is to make it increasingly efficient, sustainable, and aligned with the energy transition.
As a result of this experience in desalination, what lessons has EMALSA learned that can be shared with other stakeholders?
EMALSA’s experience demonstrates that desalination can be a highly effective solution for territories with limited natural water resources, provided that it is managed through proper planning and continuous improvement.
Building a desalination plant is not enough. It must be operated correctly, maintained adequately, supported by technological investment, managed by specialized teams, and adapted to the specific conditions of the territory.
This practical knowledge is one of the key lessons that we can share. EMALSA holds several patents related to desalination processes, and the Canary Islands have accumulated decades of experience in living with and managing desalination. This expertise can be valuable for other island territories, coastal regions, and areas affected by water stress.
The key lies in combining technical excellence, quality control, energy efficiency, and environmental responsibility.
In recent years, there has been increasing discussion about applying the circular economy to water management. What implications or opportunities does this represent for a company such as EMALSA?
The circular economy applied to water requires a change in perspective. Wastewater should no longer be viewed simply as a waste product, but rather as a resource that can be regenerated and reused for appropriate purposes. In a territory where water is scarce, this vision is particularly important.
For EMALSA, this means advancing water reuse, reducing pressure on conventional water resources, avoiding unnecessary discharges, and improving the efficiency of treatment processes. The circular economy is not only an environmental issue; it is also a way to increase resilience, strengthen water security, and better adapt to climate change.
Currently, more than 40% of the wastewater treated by EMALSA is converted into reclaimed water. Despite this significant figure, increasing this percentage remains one of the company’s strategic priorities.
Looking ahead, how do you envision water governance in the Canary Islands ten years from now?
I envision a more integrated, collaborative, and risk-oriented model of water governance. Climate change, pressure on water resources, infrastructure renewal, and the energy transition will require coordinated decisions and a shared vision among public administrations, water utilities, technology providers, universities, businesses, and citizens.
I believe we will see a more digital form of management, with greater predictive capacity and increased transparency. The Canary Islands will need to integrate more desalination, greater water reuse, improved energy efficiency, stronger environmental protection, and, if possible, an even stronger culture of water conservation.
If there is one lesson that our reality teaches us, it is that water must be treated as a strategic resource: essential for the population, for the territory, and for the economic development of the islands.
In this context, having a Strategic Plan for Water Infrastructure within the Integrated Water Cycle is a key element. It is not simply about investing in new works; it is about establishing priorities, anticipating risks, and building a more robust, efficient, and future-ready system.
In my opinion, that is the true meaning of water governance: combining planning, investment, technology, and shared responsibility.
The IDIWATER project, co-financed by the Interreg MAC 2021–2027 Programme, is integrated into the DESAL+ Living Lab Platform, a collaborative research and innovation ecosystem focused on advancing desalination technologies and their integration into sustainable water management solutions.
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