The leaking pipeline between Funcho reservoir and the Alcantarilha water treatment station is to be fixed by Águas do Algarve.
Despite millions of cubic metres of water a year flooding from ruptures in the pipeline, the water company is in no hurry, with an estimated completion date for the urgent work not scheduled until early in 2019.
Algarve MP, Paulo Sá, has been trying to get some answers as to why the pipe has been allowed to leak so prodigiously for years, but the best he has managed so far is an answer from the Ministry of Environment which also seems in no hurry at all to stop the waste.
Questions were raised in parliament after a delegation of MPs visited the Alcantarilha water treatment plant in June this year and met Águas do Algarve management to discuss the leaks.
The 12-kilometre pipe has several ruptures. The only one where water loss is being measured shows 6 million cubic meters per year is being wasted. The other leaks are not even being assessed for water loss.
The Ministry of the Environment said that the delay in fixing the pipe is because the water flow will have to be turned off before it can be repaired. Claiming this will be time-consuming and complicated, the ministry said, with rare insight, that the repairs will have to be done during a period of low demand.
The ministry also denies the water loss is significant and, anyway, claiming that it all ends up in the Arade dam and has not affected supply for households or farmers. Part of this statement may be true.
Local Silves farmers asked in 2014, if they could use water from the pipe, a connection just needs to be opened, but are still prevented legally from doing so despite parliamentary approval, due to interminable bureaucracy, with the government blaming the delay on the European Commission which recently has requested “additional information for decision-making .” (here)
The irrigation water project for farmers, funded by the European Union and the State budget, was completed in 2016 and just needs the final connection to be turned on to enable water and energy to be saved by more than 700 Silves farmers.
Only after the “EC’s decision can any technical and financial conditions be defined, together with the model of joint use of the infrastructure,” waffles the Ministry of the Environment.
This situation appears to be of little concern those in charge of ensuring Portugal's infrastructure works as specified and that precious resources are managed efficiently.
See also: 'Environment Minister happy to waste 6 million m3 of water from one Algarve pipeline leak' July 2017
