Faro, Portugal, Dec. 3, 2025 (Lusa) - A platform of environmental associations on Wednesday expressed its opposition to the decision by the Portuguese Environment Agency to issue a conditional favourable statement on the Algarve seawater desalination plant project.
"Given the persistent lack of basic documents to assess the Algarve Sea Water Desalination Plant project, the Sustainable Water Platform (PAS) does not understand, nor does it find any legal justification for the Environment Agency to have issued a conditional favourable statement on this project," the environmentalists said in a statement.
The platform emphasises that the decision on the Environmental Compliance of the Implementation Project (DCAPE) for the Algarve desalination plant refers to the 45 contributions in the Public Consultation, "but does not present the content of several submissions, including that of the PAS".
"This omission seems deliberate to us," the organisation accuses, adding that PAS's participation in this public consultation listed all the requirements/conditions presented in the Environmental Impact Statement and compared them with the measures proposed in the RECAPE [Environmental Compliance Report for the Implementation Project], proving that it "did not meet the requirements presented in the Environmental Impact Statement".
According to PAS, this favourable decision on the Environmental Compliance of the Implementation Project, DCAPE, albeit conditional, "paves the way for irreversible damage to the Algarve coast and the marine ecosystem" and "harms existing economic activities, namely fishing and tourism," the environmentalists stress.
The platform, which brings together 13 non-governmental organisations, states that more than 400 documents were presented in the RECAPE "in a completely disorganised and inorganic manner, some of them repeated and with titles that did not allow their content to be identified".
Despite these obstacles in the consultation, PAS considers that several documents were still not presented, or were presented in an "incomplete" manner, namely plans, graphic surveys and data analysis, "which would necessarily have to be evaluated prior to the start of the approval of the work, in the preliminary project phase".
PAS also argues that this decision on the Environmental Compliance of the Implementation Project, DCAPE, still requires 20 documents, which are missing and should be submitted prior to the start of the work and the desalination plant's operational phase.
The platform argues that 123 mitigation measures are also listed as necessary during the construction phase and should be included in the respective Environmental Monitoring Plan for the Work.
The construction of the desalination plant, located in the municipality of Albufeira and due to be completed by the end of 2026, is included in the Algarve Regional Water Efficiency Plan, representing an investment of over €100 million.
The project is one of the measures in response to the drought affecting southern Portugal, and the plant is expected to have an initial capacity to convert 16 cubic hectometres of seawater into drinking water.
PAS consists of 13 non-governmental organisations, namely A Rocha Portugal, Água é Vida, AlBio - Associação Agroecológica do Algarve, Almargem-Associação de Defesa do Património Cultural e Ambiental do Algarve, CIVIS-Associação para o Aprofundamento da Cidadania, and Ecotopia-Associação Ambiental e de Desenvolvimento Sustentável.
Also belonging to the platform are FALA-Fórum do Ambiente do Litoral Alentejano, Faro 1540 - Association for the Defence and Promotion of the Environmental and Cultural Heritage of Faro, Glocal Faro, League for the Protection of Nature (LPN), the Association for the Algarve Barrocal (Probaal), Quercus-National Association for Nature Conservation, the REGAR group and ZERO - Sustainable Earth System Association.
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