Portugal has to get used to living with less water, warns Minister of the Environment – Observer
The Portuguese will have to get used to living with less water, the Minister of the Environment, the Government “has no type of limitation in the application, which also allows for warning of consumption”.
In an interview with Agência Lusa, at a time when the country is experiencing one of the worst droughts ever, the Minister of the Environment and Climate Action, Duarte Cordeiro, highlights that the most important thing is water for people’s consumption, and that if there is no water, the Government applies “start the ones that are coming”.
“It’s not worth it, who promotes a certain type of investment or infrastructure, not taking into account that water is a scarce resource. And we don’t have any kind of limitation on the application of when it is necessary. It’s what art is made of”, said Du, warning Cordeiro that investing without taking into account who we have water for can have consequences.
And he added: “It is important to explain that we will have to get used to living with less watereveryone, agro-industrial activities as well, the economic sectors, and we all have to look at the opportunities we have”.
Responding specifically to golf courses, the minister asks investors to look at the territory and protect themselves. “Economic sectors that need water, it is good that they invest, because they allow water, which are abstractions at sea, reusable waters, trying to make efficiency not a matter of choice”.
Duarte Cordeiro spoke to Agência Lusa about the United Nations Ocean Conference, which starts on Monday in Lisbon and lasts until Friday. As part of the conference, which is mostly held on the oceans, under the theme “Save the Oceans Protect the Future”, a high-level symposium on water is held, organized by the Government and which will be opened by Duarte Cordeiro.
The symposium, explained the minister to Lusa, is “one of the most side events associated with the Ocean Conference”. and aims “seek to build links between what is the importance of freshwater safeguards” and the preservation of the oceans and the fight against climate change.
Portugal, defender of the minister, has work done in this matter, because it went from 15% of treated wastewater in 1990 to 99% today. “And this has an immediate impact on the level, for example, of blue flag beaches”, this year around 430.
In other words, he said, treated water ends up at sea, which is reflected in the quality of coastal waters, which is also reflected in marine biodiversity.
In the words of the minister, the symposium, whose opening session also includes the intervention of four ministers and the UN Under-Secretary-General for the Economy and Social Affairs, Liu Zheenmin, will serve to debate topics such as climate change, adaptation to water shortages or new sources of abstraction.
“The symposium is the link between fresh and salt water. Make a list of the importance that the treatment and preservation of fresh water has for the quality of the oceans”, stressed Duarte Cordeiro, adding that when talking about the depollution of the oceans, the need to preserve biodiversity, it is important to have a notion of the importance of water quality.
And that with water is also always constant, added to climate change, to the rise in sea levels, to the phenomenon at the extremity or coast, to meteorological or coastal phenomena, to meteorological phenomena, but also the ability to adapt to situations of less water and drought managementtopics also from the high-level meeting.
The meeting on Monday will focus on the United Nations’ sustainable development goals related to water, but also on the possibilities for cooperation between States. Among them the European Commissioner for the Environment, Virginijus Sinkevicius.
Monday’s meeting precedes the UN Water Conference, in New York in March next year, and aims to contribute to the preparatory process for that conference, says the minister.
On the subject of the conference, the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, is reminded that, currently, 40% of the world population is lacking water, 80% of the residing waters are illuminated without environment, and more than 90% of disasters are related to the water.
In the interview with Lusa, Minister Duarte Cordeiro recalls that currently 34% of the continent is in severe drought and 66% in extreme droughtand says that in July an awareness campaign on the matter will begin.
And there’s no doubt, these campaigns can’t stop. “All this work has to have the dimension of availability, we cannot prepare for less and not have a constant awareness-raising work”.