On May 20, 2025, the executive project for the construction of the desalination plant for the brackish waters of the Tara springs was officially approved.
Once operational, the Tara River desalination plant will produce up to approximately 60,000 cubic meters of drinking water per day. The water produced will be conveyed through an underground pipeline—approximately 14 kilometers long—to a 200,000-cubic-meter reservoir located in the city of Taranto, which is connected to the regional distribution network across Apulia. Preparatory activities for the start of construction are currently underway. Once in operation, the plant will be the largest of its kind in Italy.
The project was entirely developed using BIM (Building Information Modeling) methodology by a design team led by Ai Engineering S.r.l., in collaboration with Consorzio Uning and Suez Italy.
From a technical perspective, the Taranto desalination plant is based on reverse osmosis technology—a process in which brackish water is drawn in and passed through a series of filtering membranes that retain salts and impurities.
