Vigo, March 4, 2026. The presence of heavy metals The presence of lead, iron, and nickel in the water near the IES Beade school has raised serious concerns in the Quintián-Vigo water supply area. Recent reports from Public Health indicate significant concentrations of lead, iron, and nickel at various points in the network, leading to conflicting accounts between the Galician Regional Government (Xunta de Galicia), the Vigo City Council, and the water company Aqualia.
On the table are the results of samples taken on different days in February from four external connections near the instituteThe Xunta (Galician government) believes this indicates a problem in the municipal network, while the City Council insists that the irregularities detected are limited to private sections of homes and businesses in the area and that, in the case of the educational center, the supply complies with legal limits.
What do the Public Health analyses say in Beade?
The reports sent by the Galician Ministry of Health to the Vigo City Council and the concessionary company detail that Public Health pharmaceutical inspectors collected samples at four different points outside the IES Beadeall of them within the Quintián-Vigo Supply Zone. In those samples, taken on several days in February, the presence of heavy metals such as lead and nickel.
According to the notification, the results point to a “high concentration” of these metals in municipal water connections of the area, which shifts the focus away from the institute's interior facilities and onto the distribution network that runs along public roads. The Galician government emphasizes that these values had already been detected in previous inspections and that the new analyses confirm the trend.
The regional administration has transferred this data to both the City Council and FCC Aqualia, the entity that manages the municipal concession for the drinking water service in Vigo, highlighting the need to clarify precisely where the contaminants are coming from and whether they may be affecting other points in the same supply system.
Meanwhile, those in the education sector point out that the incident directly affects a particularly sensitive environment: a public school with underage studentsThis puts added pressure on administrations to provide quick and transparent answers.
Formal request to the City Council and Aqualia: one week to act
As a result of the findings, the Territorial Department of the Ministry of Health has issued a request in which It gives the Vigo City Council and Aqualia a one-week deadline to justify the actions taken and plan short- and medium-term measures. The document is not merely a warning: it cautions that if the requests are not addressed or the non-compliance persists, the situation It may be classified as a serious offense under current regulations. in the area of drinking water.
Among the demands, Sanidade asks for the detailed identification of the materials used in the network, the branches and the connections that supply the Beade area, as well as confirmation of whether or not they exist non-return valves and shut-off valves prior to each service connectionThe goal is to rule out old or unsuitable items that may be releasing lead or other compounds into the water.
The requirement also includes the obligation to facilitate technical documentation or declarations of responsibility from manufacturers of all materials and products that come into contact with drinking water. This documentation must prove that they comply with applicable European and Spanish legislation, both regarding the quality of drinking water and the materials in contact with water (standards that are becoming increasingly strict in the EU with regard to lead and other metals).
Furthermore, the Xunta demands specific information on the actions taken or planned to check if a similar problem is occurring in other areas of the same water supply system. The health department wants a clear timeline with planned interventionswhich includes, for example, possible replacements of pipes, connections and control elements.
The notification emphasizes that, should the situation persist without a satisfactory response, the health authorities could initiate sanctioning proceduresThis opens the door to a more significant administrative conflict between the Xunta, the Concello, and the concessionary company.
The state of the facilities at IES Beade
While the origin of the metals in the area's water is being debated, both the regional government (Xunta) and the school community have sought to clarify the condition of the school's internal facilities. At the beginning of February, The regional director of Education, César Pérez Ares, visited the IES Beade accompanied by technical staff from the department, representatives of the institute's management and a person in charge of the supply company.
During that inspection it was verified that All water consumption pipes within the educational premises are made of polyethylene.from the meter located on the facade to the interior of the building. This type of plastic material, widely used in modern networks, does not contain lead, which reinforces the argument that The pollution does not originate from the institute's internal installation.but from the external connections that link to the municipal network.
The Ministry of Health has used this data to emphasize that the focus of the investigation should be focused on the public network infrastructures that supply the Quintián-Beade areaespecially in older sections or those with metal elements susceptible to corrosion.
This type of situation is not exclusive to Galicia: Similar problems have been documented in various European cities associated with old lead or metal alloy pipes, which has forced the replacement of thousands of connections and increased monitoring of materials authorized for drinking water networks. A similar case can be seen in news reports about possible water contamination in other municipalities.
The Vigo City Council's version and the role of private connections
Contrary to the Galician government's account, the Vigo city council maintains a more nuanced position. In several statements sent to the media, the council argues that The measurements taken by the concessionaire Aqualia do not corroborate the same levels of metals which the Ministry of Health collects in some of its samples.
According to the City Council, after the first warning from the Xunta, Aqualia conducted its own analyses at the indicated points and did not find such high values in the general network. In one of the cases, it states that the only relevant anomaly was a abnormal amount of lead in the particular section of the service connection to a nearby houseThe responsibility lies with the owner and not the local administration, as it is a private facility.
The City Council also refers to a hospitality establishment in the areaThe regional government reported iron levels and other parameters above expected levels. The city council maintains that Aqualia's tests did not confirm these results and that their analyses showed iron levels within acceptable limits for drinking water.
In the specific case of IES Beade, the City Council insists that No breaches in the quality of the water supplied to the center have been found.It cites its own measurements in which the lead would have yielded different values than those of the Health Department: while the regional body would have detected around 10,7 micrograms per liter, the analyses of the concessionaire would place the concentration at around 8, a figure that the City Council considers within the limits set by the regulations.
Regarding nickel, the concessionary company assures that The available analytics reflect a value of zero. in the institute's water supply, something that contradicts the Galician government's references to the presence of this metal in some points of the Quintián network. This technical disagreement between administrations leaves open the question of which measurements should be considered the primary reference when assessing the health risk.
Institutional clash and neighborhood doubts in Beade
The exchange of data and statements between the Xunta (Galician regional government) and the Concello (local council) has resulted in an unclear situation for the residents of Beade and the Quintián area. On the one hand, Health authorities speak of repeated breaches and warn of possible serious infractions If they are not corrected; on the other hand, the City Council stresses that its internal controls indicate a situation under control in the general network and limit the problems to some particular connections.
This institutional dialectic translates into a climate of some distrust among part of the neighborhood, which demands More detailed information on the exact locations where heavy metals have been detected, the sampling dates, the analytical methods used and the recommended preventative measures while the conflict is being resolved.
The Galician government insists that, beyond the specific differences in values, The presence of lead, iron, and nickel has been confirmed in several municipal water connections. from the area surrounding the IES Beade school, and that, for health reasons, it is necessary to thoroughly review all elements of the network that may be contributing to this contamination and study how decontaminate the water.
The City Council, for its part, emphasizes that will continue to conduct additional analyses and that it will collaborate with the concessionaire to guarantee the quality of the water, while emphasizing that a large part of the reported incidents affect private properties.
In this context, the debate on the state of the hydraulic infrastructure in Vigo And, by extension, in many Spanish and European cities where sections of the network are renovated alongside much older ones. The case of Beade serves as an example of how small, localized anomalies can end up jeopardizing the safety of a water supply system if they are not communicated and managed clearly enough.
Pending the completion of the investigation and the comparison of all analyses, the case of the heavy metals in the water of Beade It serves as an example of the importance of constantly monitoring the quality of drinking water, reviewing network materials, transparently clarifying the differences between technical reports, and coordinating the various administrations so that citizens are clear about what is happening, what real risk exists, and what solutions will be implemented in the short and medium term.
