Portugal tries to fight “the worst drought of the 21st century” by limiting water consumption
Portugal intends to limit water consumption in the Algarve and Trás os Montes to combat what has been described by the Minister for the Environment and Climate Action as the worst drought in 21st century country.
At the end of the 10th meeting of the Standing Committee, Monitoring and Monitoring the Effects of Drought, at the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Action, the government announced four more measures to “mitigate the effects of hydrological drought in Portugal” to add to the 78 in effective from 1 February.
O Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) recently underlined the severity of the drought situation revealing the “decrease in the values of percentage of water in the territory throughout the territory”.
The information available on the 15th of July makes it possible to distinguish “the North and Central interior region, the Tagus valley and the districts of Castelo Branco, Setúbal, Beja and Faro as areas in which the values” of water in the soil “are less than 10 % and equal to permanent wilting point“, which means a serious plant life.
The IPMA warns of a “drought situation throughout the territory” and informs that, non-meteorological in relation to the end of June”, for “extreme drought, in relation to the end of June”, for “an increase in the area in dry valley extreme, particularly in the Tagus region and in some places in the North and Central interior”.
To save some water, on Friday the Portuguese government as the following actions:
- The Portuguese Environment Agency has reached out with the associations of the Algarve tourism sector to promote, in a collaborative way, the reduction of water consumption with tourist developments of the region, namely greens in the irrigation of golf courses and spaces;
- In the north of the country, for the progress of the work connecting the Alto Rabagão system to the Arcossó system, increase global resilience make system;
- Launch of the procedure for the contract to extend the Pinhão to the Vila Chã pipeline system;
- Reactivation of the Camba catchment to reduction in volume captured in Albufeira de Sambade.
António Costa’s improvement executive also made the investments foreseen under the Improvement Plan (PRR) “for the water efficiency” from the region of Algarveincluding the “project to reinforce Odele’s supply from Pomarão”.
The announced Algarve desalination plant is still in the design phase, and the “procedures for the beginning of the environmental impact assessment” have been initiated.
“On the other hand, until 2025, until the 2025 side, there will still be conditions to use all the recycled water in irrigation, that is, eight sides of the region’s water, the equivalent of the consumption of the municipality of Braga in 10 months”, he revealed. holders of the Ministry of Environment and Agriculture.