On the eve of the 20 th anniversary of its inauguration, on July 1, 2001, the Santa Isabel water treatment plant, in that neighborhood of the city of Bayamo, is under a technology change that will increase its efficiency.

Reinaldo Chacón González, head of the plant, explains that this is atypical, since the water filtering, flocculation and sedimentation processes are carried out in the same battery of filters.

Not having an independent settler, forces it to be stopped in cases of heavy rains that cloud the water received from the Guisa and Corojo dams, with the consequent impact on the delivery of water to the population.

The modernization of the plant, with a delivery capacity of 300 liters per second, adds Chacón González, consists of changing filters and building a flocculator-settler, a project that is in the land moving stage and whose conclusion is planned to be in 2022.

At the same time, he added, the laying of a new conductive pipe of 630 millimeters in diameter and seven kilometers in length is underway, from the water treatment plant to the Bayamo´s aqueduct, which upon entering into operation will eliminate the water losses that now occur due to repeated leaks in the current conductor.

The work, he says, is part of the comprehensive rehabilitation project of the Bayamo Aqueduct, which is being executed with a loan of 30.5 million dollars granted by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Flocculation is a chemical process by which; with the addition of substances called flocculants, the floating substances in the water are agglutinated, facilitating their decantation and subsequent filtering.

A settler is a technology that is designed to remove suspended solids.