Évora, Portugal, Sept. 9, 2024 (Lusa) - The president of Portugal's national irrigation federation (FENAREG), José Núncio, said on Monday that water quantity issues should be discussed more and argued in favour of building a "large dam" on the river Tagus.
In the case of the Alentejo region, "the large dams will have more or less all been built", although "some adjustments" could still be made, such as raising the walls of the existing dams "a little" in order to "substantially increase the reserve capacity", he said.
Speaking to journalists in Évora, on the sidelines of a European meeting of water management organisations that kicked off today, José Núncio warned that the situation of the river Tagus is "a glaring case" in which more water needs to be stored, as there is "absolutely no retention capacity" in the river.
"We only have the capacity to retain 20% of the average annual inflows into the river Tagus, which is our largest river," but even this 20% is stored in the Castelo de Bode dam, in other words, "it's water for Lisbon, it has a very specific and very reserved use."
And this reserve is achieved through the dam on the river Zêzere, "so we don't have any water reserves on the Tagus", he lamented, arguing that "a large dam on the Tagus is essential", which is being studied and could be "on the Ocreza, a tributary of the Tagus".
For FENAREG, which takes over the presidency of the European Union of Water Management Associations (EUWMA) from today until 2025, water quantity issues are the order of the day.
This is precisely one of the topics in focus at EUWMA's annual meeting, which is taking place in Évora throughout today and on Tuesday, he said.
"Until now we've talked much more about water quality than water quantity," he recognised, noting that southern European countries such as "Portugal, Spain, Italy and part of France" in particular have to "worry about water quantity problems".
According to FENAREG, the issues of water management and storage will be at the heart of Portugal's presidency of the EUWMA, "at a time when the modernisation and rational consumption of water is becoming an imperative worldwide, and particularly in Europe due to climate change".
At the European meeting, one of the topics being analysed will also be the strategic plan that the government is developing entitled "Water that Unites", which aims to "help the various economic sectors to use water intelligently" and will include "a new National Water Plan (PNA 2035)".
"The document will be out by the end of the year and we don't know much more either, but what we do know is that it will be an across-the-board strategy," involving various ministries such as "Agriculture, the Environment and, certainly, Finance and, in essence, it will try to revise the National Water Plan by 2035," said José Núncio.
In this new PNA, the president of FENAREG insisted that "the issue of water reserves" must be taken into account because, with climate change, "it is guaranteed" that rainfall "will be more irregular" and extreme phenomena, such as droughts or floods, will "certainly be more frequent".
"So I think [we need] to be prepared for this [and], in our climates, this is solved by reserving surface water," he emphasised.
The meeting in Évora, he emphasised, will produce "a document that will then be sent to national governments", but it will also be "important for lobbying in Brussels", to "try to influence European policies".
The EUWMA represents the water management organisations of 10 member states (Belgium, Italy, Hungary, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Romania and the Netherlands).
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