EPM remains firm in its commitment to the decontamination of the Aburrá-Medellín river and its tributaries. To contribute to the preservation of the environment, with an effective and efficient sewerage service in the ten municipalities of the metropolitan area, the company designed the Sanitation and Wastewater Management Plan (PSMV), a planning tool articulated with the objectives and goals of quality defined by the environmental authority, to guarantee the collection, transportation and treatment of the wastewater generated in these towns of the Aburrá Valley.

EPM's responsibility with the environment has different dimensions: caring for watersheds, forests and streams, as well as air quality; but also, for many years we have been developing tireless work to achieve the sanitation of wastewater in the metropolitan area. The plan that includes the modernization and expansion of the San Fernando Plant in Itagüí, the construction of the Aguas Claras Plant in Bello, the construction of about 400 kilometers of sewerage networks (includes modernization and expansion), the construction of the South Interceptor in Caldas and La Estrella, and the projection of the Copacabana, Girardota and Barbosa wastewater plants, which are currently in the preliminary study stage.

All this, allows us to take care of the hydrographic basins of these ten municipalities, improve the sanitation conditions by eliminating the wastewater that discharges into the streams and offer better living conditions in the surroundings of the Aburrá-Medellín river. In short, they are benefits that translate into well-being and development for our territory.

Since 1986

With the growth of the city, the strong impact of industrial and domestic water discharges on water sources was evidenced. For this reason, since 1955 a long-term vision for sanitation was conceived.

Between 1986 and 2006, the year in which the Medellín river sanitation program and its tributaries were implemented, the modernization works of the sewerage networks, North and Central collectors, the replacement of the South-Central interceptor were carried out and sanitized the southern basins of the Aburrá Valley, streams such as La Justa, La Estrella, Doña María, La Doctora, La Jabalcona, La Heliodora, La Honda, La Sebastiana and La Llorona, among others. In 2000, the San Fernando secondary wastewater treatment plant began operations in the municipality of Itagüí.

From 2001 to 2011, in the North and Center of the Aburrá Valley, the comprehensive sanitation works took place in the basins of La Hueso, Malpaso, Picacha, Guayabala, Altavista, Sana Elena, La Rosa, Quintana, Madera, Bermejala, Granizal, El Molino and La Loca. Construction of the Aguas Claras plant began in 2015 and that same year, new projects for the modernization of sewerage networks, the modernization and expansion of the San Fernando plant, and the construction of the South Interceptor were included in the initial PSMV.

Main achievements

Today, the municipalities that make up the Aburrá Valley have about 4,600 kilometers of sewerage networks in operation. The preliminary treatment of the San Fernando plant was modernized, which decreased maintenance times and increased the retention of ordinary solid waste, while in November 2018 the first two treatment lines of the Aguas Claras plant came into operation, which currently treats more of 3 m3 / s of wastewater, extracts around 25 tons of waste and polluting material, and carries out the sedimentation process to return the water to the river in optimal conditions.

Aguas Claras is the most modern wastewater treatment plant in Latin America and the Articulated Life Unit (UVA) operates in its vicinity, a playful, educational space open to the community that invites people to turn their gaze to the river as an articulator of the Aburrá Valley.

With the achievements of the PSMV, more than 140 tons of organic matter are prevented from reaching the Aburrá-Medellín river daily and it contributes to the recovery of about 80 streams. More than 84% of the wastewater generated in homes and industries is treated and returned to the Aburrá-Medellín river in optimal sanitation conditions.

The future

Currently, the Interceptor Sur is being built, a high-capacity underground infrastructure that will transport the wastewater generated in homes and industries in the municipality of Caldas and part of the rural area of ​​La Estrella to the San Fernando plant, whose installed capacity is 1.8 m3 / s. today it only receives a flow of 1.36 m3 / s., which shows that it has enough capacity to treat the flows added by this new collector; With the expansion, it will have a new secondary biological treatment train, the improvement of the existing biological train that is made of activated sludge and a new anaerobic digester, with its respective operation and control equipment.

It is a great effort by EPM and the municipalities of the metropolitan area of ​​Valle de Aburrá. The objective has been the same for more than 60 years: to recover the Aburrá-Medellín river with the completion of these works and the commitment of the community in general, which understands the importance of caring for and protecting the streams with simple actions such as a good disposition of waste.