Socialist Party councillors in Vila Real de Santo António continue to accuse the council's executive of embarking on a water privatisation process that will end in tears, as well as significantly higher water charges for customers.
The Social Democrat-run council wants to grant local water and waste management to a private company but the council opposition claims this would see water rates rise “50 percent over the next seven years."
At stake is the privatisation of the water and waste department of the municipal company, Sociedade de Gestão Urbana, and the fate of 52 workers in the council’s current water and sewage departments.
The council says these employees can stay on under the new management is they want to but that they will cease being council employees, losing all the rights that go with State employment.
The socialist opposition party also questions the sense in awarding a 30 year concession to a private company when the councillors making this decision are only in office for four years.
"The Socialist Party in Vila Real de Santo António will not be indifferent to this issue and will make every effort to prevent a service that belongs to everyone being granted terms that do not guarantee the interests of the population of the county."
In November 2016, a protest was convened by the Local and Regional Administration Workers' Union, Public Companies, Concessionaires (STAL) and brought together union leaders, locals, council workers and workers at the municipal company, Sociedade de Gestão Urbana, which currently runs the services that the council aims to privatise.
Hélio Encarnação, coordinator of STAL in the Algarve, said last November that the purpose of the protest was to alert the local population and workers to the need for "essential services, such as water and rubbish collection, to remain public" and "not be delivered to a private company."
The Social Democrats are in power and the privatisation can go ahead even though there are council elections this autumn which may see a swing to the left.
