The decrease in water available in the Algarve due to drought has led the Câmara of Castro Marim to adopt measures to reduce consumption in green spaces and combat losses.
The replacement of plant species in the gardens by others that do not need as much irrigation (succulents and cactus), the introduction of meters with telemetry to monitor consumption, the renewal of water supply networks over 70 years old or the use of treated water in the watering golf courses are some of the measures, explained Filomena Sintra, vice-president of the Castro Marim Chamber.
The councilor of that municipality in the district of Faro said that the "flow measurement with teleassistance, in duct areas and supply zones", allows "remote management" to be carried out and "to understand if consumption in that area is triggering" and then "block the connection to certain ducts ”in the event of breakages.
As for the gardens and green areas, "meters will be placed in all spaces" and the system will be able to "remotely adjust consumption so that, on rainy days, it does not turn on automatic irrigation", the Mayor explained, stressing that these investments are valued at around 300 thousand euros and were financed by the Environmental Fund.
“With this measure in the gardens of Castro Marim and Altura, we think we can reduce 25% of water consumption. In the flow measurement zones, we also plan to reduce up to 20% of losses due to ruptures not detected in time ”, he estimated.
At the same time, the Algarve Chamber is working on the first phase of the “renovation of Castro Marim's water supply networks”, which are “very old, from the 1940s and 1950s”, and “have no capacity to detect leaks” that "Go underground" if they are not detected on the surface, said Filomena Sintra.
The vice-president of the Chamber now hopes that these projects will again have community funding, because the municipality's estimate points to an investment “of five to six million euros” to renew the municipality's water supply networks, a value she considered be “unaffordable” for low population density municipalities, such as Castro Marim.
In a municipality with many settlements scattered in the Algarve hills and with the “problem of physical desertification” of the territory, Filomena Sintra also welcomed the “construction of 65 kilometers of pipelines” that make it possible to “extend the network [of water supply] to 32 localities”, which only had autonomous municipal distribution systems and now have access points to water from the Águas do Algarve high system.
However, there is still work to be done, because "there are seven or eight locations, with a significant number of people, whose boreholes have dried up this summer" and "there are about 10 locations" that still need to be connected to the high and they need authorization from guardianship, despite the “good collaboration that the Chamber has had with Águas do Algarve and the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA)”, he warned.
That official also stressed the importance of an agreement that will allow “to place water from the Vila Real de Santo António Wastewater Treatment Plant in the golf courses of Castro Marim Golfe and Quinta do Vale in the first half of 2021”, signed between the municipality, the Portuguese Environment Agency and the county's two golf courses.
“On average, each golf course will have an average consumption of 400 thousand cubic meters of water”, said the Mayor, stressing that the agreement with these two courses will allow “to reduce the consumption of water stored in the order of 800 thousand to one million cubic meters of water ”, because they will be irrigated with water from the treatment plant, unfit for human consumption, but which can also be used for irrigation in agriculture.
Original article available in Portuguese at http://postal.pt/
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