Canal de Isabel II has announced it will allocate more than 2 billion euros over the next six years to guarantee and strengthen the quality of the water service in the region. The utility has updated its Strategic Plan 2025-2030, which includes this historic investment representing 56% more than the annual average of the last ten years in the public company.
The goal of this Plan is to ensure the supply of this vital resource in a scenario characterized by population growth, the reduction of water resources, the increase in extreme weather events, and the approval of increasingly stringent national and European regulations.
To this end, Canal de Isabel II will allocate more than 850 million euros in the expansion and improvement of water collection and treatment facilities. Of these, more than 450 million will be for the renovation of pipes and other elements of the distribution network, in order to avoid losses and increase quality. The treatment stations will also be adapted. Among them will be the enlargement of the Colmenar Viejo DWTP, the largest in Spain and one of the largest in Europe, which will have a budget of 150 million euros.
In addition, in 2026 the Community of Madrid will reach one of the major milestones in terms of innovation and digitalisation projects, when it completes the roll-out of smart meters with remote reading to 100 % of customers (to date it has installed more than 600,000 of a total of 1.6 million devices). More than 100 million euros and 200 million euros will be earmarked for this purpose to continue innovating and thus move towards digital transformation in all processes of the integral management of the water cycle.
Improvement of drainage systems to reduce the effect of DANAS
Canal de Isabel II’s Strategic Plan foresees the allocation of 800 million euros to actions in the field of urban drainage and wastewater treatment. Of this amount, more than 230 million will go to install new technologies to optimise wastewater treatment plants to the new requirements of the discharge authorisations. In addition, some 500 million will be used to optimise and modernise drainage and sewerage systems in the Madrid region, which is particularly important to minimise the effects of extreme weather events such as droughts.
Canal de Isabel II will allocate more than 850 million euros in the expansion and improvement of water collection and treatment facilities
In order to care for the quality of the region's water bodies and rivers, more than 50 million will be invested in spillway treatment facilities and retention elements to prevent pollution of watercourses, and 60 million to develop clean energy and other energy efficiency projects.
Keeping tariffs below the national average
In order to meet these challenges and in order to finance these actions and protect a scarce resource, with a significant population increase, Canal will adapt its tariffs progressively, seeking a balance between offering the necessary service and maintaining an affordable price. The objective is to guarantee the sustainability of the supra-municipal management model, maintaining water tariffs below the national average and contributing to boost Madrid as a capital region in the development of the economy and the welfare of its citizens.
In this regard, vulnerable groups will continue to be helped by means of tariff reductions. The adaptation will be carried out progressively, with a single 3 % update order being applied in each period to the tariffs of the previous period. The periods of change will correspond to the second half of 2025, and on an annual basis from 2026 to 2030.
Thus, a bimonthly amount of 37.2 euros is expected on the bill for the second half of this year in Madrid, well below other Spanish cities such as Barcelona (80.5), Seville (62.5), Valencia (59.6) or Bilbao (51). For this calculation, an average domestic customer has been taken into account, with a consumption of 20 cubic metres per two months and a 15 millimetre meter.
