Valencia tests out the taste of its water

The idea is to see how pipes affect the smell and flavour of drinking water

Last week, the municipal website of Valencia informed about the launch of a new project in the city which has the aim to test how pipes which transport drinking water affect its taste. The initiative is called ‘Faucet’ and is carried out in partnership with the University of Sheffield (England), with funding being provided by the Valencian Innovation Agency.

Did you know that different materials can affect water taste differently?

Elisa Valía, Councillor for Integral Water Cycle in the Spanish city, has described the study as ‘pioneering’ and the system that was installed to test it out as ‘innovative’. She also stressed that the water supply company Emivasa is committed to research and constant improvement in services as this project shows.

The authorities explained that the role of the pipe material will be studied with the installation of a ‘pilot’ pipeline in La Creu Coberta neighbourhood of the coastal city, and more specifically on Joaquín Navarro Street. That pipeline will contain 16 control and sample collection points along its length.

"The location of these sample points and their monitoring will be carried out without affecting at any time the supply and, in addition, protecting the representativeness of the samples because in no case will they lose contact with water," said Dionisio García, CEO of Global Omnium, a water utility company.

The pipeline in question is made of polyethelene, which is considered to have the least impact on the flavour profile of the liquid. The collected samples will be taken to laboratories to examine the behaviour and growth of the so-called biofilm over time using molecular techniques based on metagenomics. Biofilms are the thin layer of microorganisms that can buildup during the time in specific organic-inducing environments, such as the presence of water.