Portugal’s Minister for the Environment, João Matos Fernandes, has looked at the pollution in the Tagus and the low amount of water being released from Spain, concluding that there is no problem at all and that he "saw no dead fish." The most likely explanation being that they are all dead - (here)
Stating that it is no use measuring water flow when there is a drought, the minister did suggest that daily, rather than weekly, measurements should be taken as Spain varies the amount of water released – “Portugal must negotiate with Spain accordingly,” said the minister.
The last of his ‘negotiations with Spain’ was the shameful affair of the Almaraz nuclear power station where Portugal withdrew its formal objection lodged at the European Commission after Jean-Claude Drunker bullied Portugal into submission, on the grounds of 'good neighbourliness' rather than an objective and critical assessment of the threats to the river from Spain's nuclear waste.
Fernandes has visited Vila Velha de Ródão and Nisa and confirmed that water indeed is scarce in those places because of the drought.
"We really have to negotiate with Spain so that the flows can even become daily," João Matos Fernandes told reporters at the end of a hearing in the Parliamentary Committee on the Environment, requested by Left block.
The well-trained eagle eye of the minister failed to spot any pollution at all, "What I saw was a river that, having no apparent problem of pollution - there were no dead fish - had less water than the expectation."
To address pollution, “in addition to intensifying the monitoring mechanisms in that area,” Fernandes said it is necessary to increase the amount of oxygen in the water and this is done mainly with more water.”
This will dilute the pollution that plagues the river, but will not make it disappear but to get this low pollution reading, Fernandes will press ahead to get Spain to increase the flow rate and “to negotiate with Spain so that the flow measurements becomes daily.”
Fernandes told MPs last on Wednesday, in State Budget discussions, that "it is not a good idea to discuss flows in a year of drought, this is not done and Portugal will not do it. But it is important that there is greater continuity in the water coming from Spain to Portugal."
The minister then promised that something is being done, but that he can not tell us, "We have to have a greater capacity to manage the river, that is what we have not had, and from a set of small decisions that were made yesterday and will be made public in due course, this may happen.”
See also: Millions of Tagus fish dead - EC well aware of 'killer pulp mill'