Faro, Portugal, 28, 2024 (Lusa) - Only five of the Algarve's 16 municipalities reduced their water consumption in September, but they still fell short of the 10% reduction target, according to a Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) report.
According to data from the most recent Algarve Water Observatory, dated 30 September, the month saw "a decrease in the performance of 16 municipalities" in the region, in terms of meeting the 10% reduction in urban consumption set in June by the government.
The five Algarve municipalities that reduced their water consumption in September, compared to the same period in 2023, were Lagoa, Tavira, Vila Real de Santo António, Alcoutim and Castro Marim, although they fell "short of the 10% reduction target", the document said.
"Regarding accumulated urban consumption between January and September [2024], there was an 8.0% reduction in the region, which translates into a saving of around 4.7 million cubic metres compared to the reference period [January to September 2023]," it added.
According to the monitoring report, during the fourth quarter of the 2023/24 hydrological year, the accumulated rainfall in the region was less than 50 millimetres, except for the Monchique area, where it was higher.
"The assessment of the evolution of the level of hydrological drought for the 2023/24 hydrological year shows that the windward [west] and leeward [east] regions remain in extreme hydrological drought and the Arade basin has eased its level and is now in moderate hydrological drought," the document said.
Concerning groundwater bodies, the report states that most of the aquifer systems - Almádena-Odiáxere, Querença-Silves and Campina de Faro - continue to register "very low piezometric levels", with "significantly low levels and below the 20th percentile".
In the case of the Almádena-Odiáxere body of water in Lagos, the situation in this hydrological year "is more serious than in the drought of 2005, and levels are approaching the average sea level", the document stated.
Concerning the Querença-Silves aquifer (between Loulé and Silves), the situation is worse in the central and western zones, with the eastern zone of the system showing "signs of recovery", but the situation "is more unfavourable than in the 2005 drought and significantly more serious than in the 2022 drought".
In the Algarve region, water storage levels in the reservoirs have been below 50% since May 2022. The lack of replenishment during wet periods generates a continuous deficit in terms of the use of available surface and groundwater.
The current situation of water reserves in the Algarve region, particularly in the years 2022 and 2023, when values below the 20th percentile were recorded, means that current water uses "cannot be adequately met with the existing reserves in surface and groundwater", says the APA.
"The rainfall that occurred in March and April made it possible to increase the volumes stored in the reference reservoirs in the Algarve region, making it possible, between 1 January and 30 April, to increase the stored volume by a further 84 cubic hectometres (hm3)," it added.
According to the APA, this situation "makes it possible, albeit cautiously, to reduce the level of reduction in the volumes allocated for the different uses and ecological flows without, however, neglecting the fact that at the end of December 2024, the useful volume stored in the reservoirs will say one year of public supply".
António Costa's government had decreed a drought alert in the Algarve region on 5 February. Still, at the end of May, the current prime minister, Luís Montenegro, announced the easing of restrictions imposed on agriculture and the urban sector, which includes tourism.
With the repeal of the previous government's resolution, the new government updated the restrictions imposed on water consumption in the Algarve from 25% to 13% in agriculture and from 15% to 10% in the urban sector in a cabinet resolution published in June.
MAD/ADB // ADB.
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