In a decisive move to overhaul its urban infrastructure, El Salvador’s National Administration of Aqueducts and Sewers (ANDA) has officially signed a landmark contract with the Spanish consortium Aguas de Valencia and BTD. This strategic partnership marks the official launch of the Non-Revenue Water Reduction Program, an ambitious initiative designed to curb massive water losses and upgrade aging supply systems across the nation’s capital.
The comprehensive project is a core component of El Salvador’s broader Water Sector Resilience Project. Over a three-year contract, the consortium will execute seven major infrastructural works, including the rehabilitation of 17.4 kilometers of distribution pipelines, the optimization of 10 strategic storage tanks, and an intensive sub-surface campaign to detect and repair invisible leaks across more than 600 kilometers of the network.
To ensure accurate resource management, the initiative also includes a massive socio-economic assessment. Teams will conduct a comprehensive user census spanning 120,000 households to update customer registries, regulate fraudulent connections, and supply and install over 100,000 new domestic water meters throughout the metropolitan area, ensuring fairer distribution and precise tracking.
The operational focus will heavily target the vital Torogoz system, which supplies the most densely populated sectors of San Salvador. Highlighting the complexity of the operation, ANDA President Dagoberto Arévalo explained that “consists of carrying out pipeline renewal works and connection upgrades. It is a very large, very complex contract with many activities, but we believe that with ANDA’s supervision team plus the company’s expertise, we will move forward.”
With this historic modernization, El Salvador sets a major precedent for infrastructure development in Latin America. Highlighting the regional significance of the deal, BTD CEO Andrés Llorden pointed out that “El Salvador is the first Central American country that opts for a modernization of greater impact in this sector,” a move that will directly improve daily water pressure and service continuity for thousands of citizens in critical districts like Apopa, Mejicanos, and Ciudad Delgado.