The president of the Algarve Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR) today highlighted the need “to have consensus” with all entities to manage water in the region and study the feasibility of new abstractions.
“We need to work together, find consensus between political decision-makers, different entities and economic sectors, because the issue of water is strategic for the Algarve” said José Apolinário to the Lusa news agency.
According to the official, “the priority, at this moment, is to implement in the coming years [until 2029]” the approximately 340 million euros of European funds “that are available to the region” for the water efficiency plan.
Of this amount, 240 million euros are from the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), which must be implemented at the beginning of 2026, with a further 100 million euros for the urban water cycle and rising water, which result from the Portugal2030, which must be implemented by 2029.
“We need the desalination plant, the capture of water from Pomarão, the feasibility study of the Foupana dam, in the municipality of Castro Marim, and after these projects are completed we need a possible connection between Alqueva and Odeleite”, he pointed out.
José Apolinário also pointed out that the eventual transfer of water from the Alqueva dam (Alentejo) to the Odeleite dam (Algarve), “is not a transfer, but rather a transfer, because it is done within the same river basin”.
“It is a scenario that cannot be dismissed and must be put on the table alongside the construction of the Foupana dam. But it will always be a scenario to consider after PRR”, he highlighted.
The president of the Algarve CCDR reinforced that the connection between the two dams, a distance of around 70 kilometers, “will be an option that will have to be considered in the future for agricultural purposes”.
According to José Apolinário, the connection between the two dams “may be technically viable, although it is work that needs to be studied, as well as its economic impact”.
Asked about a possible transfer of water from the North to the South, a solution that has long been discussed as a way of mitigating water scarcity in the South of the country, the president of the CCDR of the Algarve recalled that "from the point of view of environmental legislation, there is a criticism saying that they violate directives and will create an additional problem for the country”.
The Algarve and Alentejo are the regions most affected by drought in Portugal, with precipitation levels well below the average of recent decades.
Source Lusa
