On this National Water Day, Oct 1st, Águas do Algarve have announced that the public tender for the design, construction and operation of the Algarve desalination plant has been awarded to the complementary group of companies – ACE, formed by the companies Luságua – Serviços Ambientais, SA, Aquapor – Serviços, SA and GS Inima Enviroment, SAU.
The project represents an investment of 107 million euros, integrated into the Algarve Regional Water Efficiency Plan, with support from the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP).
In a statement, Águas do Algarve says that the main reason for carrying out this investment is linked to the "need to create an alternative capable of guaranteeing the resilience of public water supply to the region's population, even in periods of prolonged drought".
The infrastructure, which will have an initial capacity to treat 16 million m3 of water, could reach 24 million m3.
Águas do Algarve recalls that the region "has suffered, over the last few years, cycles of prolonged drought associated with a situation of water scarcity that is already considered structural, resulting in a decrease in the volumes of water stored in the various available sources, and this situation is being monitored by the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA), Águas de Portugal (AdP) and Águas do Algarve (AdA)".
In order to minimize this situation, the company says that several studies point to the use of seawater desalination "as one of the possible structural measures to reinforce water production capacity", within the scope of the Algarve Regional Water Efficiency Plan.
