Lusa - Business News - Portugal: Environmental group against Algarve water pipeline

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Lusa - Business News - Portugal: Environmental group against Algarve water pipeline

Lisbon, May.3,2024(Lusa)- The environmental association Zero spoke out on Friday against the construction of a pipeline in Pomarão to take water from the River Guadiana to the Odeleite reservoir in the Algarve, criticising the increase in the supply of a resource that it considers to be scarce.
In a statement sent to Lusa, the Sustainable Terrestrial System Association (Zero) expressed its opposition to the project to reinforce the Algarve's water supply by using the Pomarão water intake solution, arguing that the increase in supply "cannot lead to unsustainable consumption".
The environmentalists emphasise that "all future scenarios point to a continued reduction in annual rainfall, reinforcing the need to invest in a long-term strategy based on solutions aimed at greater efficiency in the use of available water".
The project involves taking surface water in the estuarine zone of the River Guadiana, near the village of Mesquita, upstream of Pomarão, in the municipality of Mértola (Alentejo), and constructing a pipeline to the Odeleite reservoir in the municipality of Castro Marim (Algarve).
The Pomarão water catchment is one of the measures defined in the Algarve Regional Water Efficiency Plan, for which €61.5 million are earmarked in the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) 2021-2026.
The pipeline routes present three alternatives (the first with two variants), which run through the municipalities of Mértola (Beja), Alcoutim and Castro Marim (Faro), for a total length of pipeline that varies between 37 and 41 kilometres, depending on the alternative route.
According to Zero, the project's Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), whose public consultation ended last Monday, "undervalues the possible cross-border impacts of the project", which must be negotiated with Spain under the Albufeira Convention between the two Iberian countries.
"Any advance without prior negotiation will make the project illegal, as is already the case with the Boca-Chança catchment, carried out by Spain, located downstream from the planned Pomarão water intake site," warn the environmentalists.
The Pomarão water intake is one of the measures included in the Algarve's Regional Water Efficiency Plan, for which €200 million are earmarked from the PRR, in addition to the future desalination plant, the production of water for reuse and the reduction of water losses in the urban sector.
The Algarve has been on alert due to drought since 5 February, and the previous government approved measures to restrict consumption, namely a 15% reduction in the urban sector, including tourism, and 25% in agriculture.
On Tuesday, the current government acknowledged easing the cuts in water consumption in the region, in the urban sector and agriculture, with several scenarios on the table, the environment minister announced after a meeting of the Southern Zone Regional Subcommittee of the Reservoir Management Commission.
On the occasion, Maria da Graça Carvalho said that the government's decision on the matter would be announced at the next meeting of the Permanent Commission for the Prevention, Monitoring and Follow-up of the Effects of Drought, to be held on 10 May in Faro.
FPB/ADB // ADB.
Lusa

Agency : LUSA
Date : 2024-05-04 11:14:00

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