The different uses of water in Portugal – Observer
There is a campaign to fix the lack of water, taking the government away from the investment it has to make and allowing the most important votes (those of the cities) to feel very much their own. More serious, I think the idea in the end is to transfer control of the dams, especially the Alqueva, to environmental control instead of leaving it in the productive activity. All this harms the country, the agricultural productive sector and the environment.
In the last week the water was back in the news, it was used again to attack the farmers. In a recent interview, the Secretary General of the National Water Council used water again as a weapon against farmers. With at least “perverse” arguments (a word used by himself), this gentleman once again portrays the agricultural sector as being irresponsible in the use of this resource.
This systematic blaming for the lack of water, publicized by the media, gives the lack of thinking that they are the main responsible for the lack of water, has served to divert attention from the real reasons for their thinking. On the other hand, the state of political abandonment to which the sector is subject is heartbreaking. After this attack, not a word from the defense in defense of YOURS and worse, not a word from the opposition parties in defense of the sector. This cannot justify everything, agriculture does not elect.
Returning to this resource, being such a valuable asset and abundant water, it must be taken in a good amount, a rigorous evaluation of the systems of use, identifying and quantifying how its measures differ and approving different measures to this resource.
It is officially recognized that in primary urban distribution systems, both urban and high-level distribution systems, is basic.
According to the annual report of the Water and Waste regulator, in 2019 there were millions of meteors. A study by the Regulatory Authority for Water and Waste Services has already been widely publicized, in which about 25% of the water that passes through the supply pipelines in Portugal is lost. A still, still second, would supply the same number of Portuguese.
It takes a huge amount of impudence to talk about the use of water in agriculture in such a scenario.
I realize that the losses of the species of distribution systems are necessary so that the problem is not so difficult to carry out these systems because it is an investment that is not clear about the importance of water in these systems because it is necessary that the result is not clear about the importance of those votes. It is easier to attack agriculture by denigrating its image as it does not count towards the results.
It matters as for foods that use water, products that are the best of uses, serve to produce. Water is not lost: it is transformed.
There are those who think that this constant association of agriculture with the misuse of water is part of a strategy to transfer the responsibility of EDIA to the Ministry of the Environment, integrating it into Águas de Portugal. Perhaps that is why we have been without formal management for more than a year at the company that manages Alqueva. It would be important for this topic to be necessary at the level of Parliament and if it were created as doubts that hang in the air
But not only the existing system must act, another fundamental measure for small water species would be to create a network of storage basins (Dams) along the Country. Just this week we watched a report on one of the television channels about the enormous flow that the Tagus River had these days. It is a running look without the possibility of water looking for use in periods of greater resistance and need.
In short, we all use water for bathing, some to water rot and a few to produce food and drinking water. With the Ministry of the Environment, Alqueva changes that the passage where food dies for the number of water management will have more quantity…