what state are the reservoirs in?
thanks to a month of december 2022 rains incredibly in Portugal continentalin which weeks full of abundant rainoften marked by floods and floodsis that now, according to the last weekly bulletin of the reservoirs released by National Water Resources Information System (SNIRH) gives Portuguese Environment Agency (APA), 44 of the 75 reservoirs monitored in mainland Portugal had a storage volume between 81% and 100%.
For example, it is worth emphasizing the resumes electricity production n/a Alto Rabagão Reservoirwhich was the only one of 15 dams that remained suspended, after a prolonged period of drought.
Nonetheless, such as Campilhas, Monte da Rocha and Bravura reservoirs, all located in the south of the country (Litoral Alentejano, Baixo Alentejo and Barlavento Algarvio, respectively) keep in critical condition. These three reservoirs continue to show worrying levels of storage, below 20%.
January 2023 with above average processing
Last Monday (2nd) the reservoirs presented themselves, on a national scale, an average storage of 82%. In the week between December 26, 2022 and January 2, 2023, the total volume increased by 0.3%. In the space of just one week, there was an increase in the volume stored in 11 watersheds and a decrease in 4.
“59% of the monitored reservoirs show water availability greater than 80% of the total volume and 13% have availabilities of less than 40% of the total volume” – reads in the last weekly bulletin of the SNIRH-APA.
As mentioned by the SNIRH, “the storages in the first week of January 2023, by river basin, are higher than the storage averages for the month of January (1990/91* to 2021/22)except for the Mondego, Sado, Ribeiras do Alentejo, Mira, Arade, Ribeiras do Barlavento and Ribeiras do Sotavento basins”.
Despite the critical state of some reservoirs, it should be noted that, from the climatological winter (period of three months), only one month has passed, that of December 2022. January and February 2023 could become meteorologically pivotal months in terms of water storage in the southern reservoirs of our continental geography.
The biggest and smallest water storages in mainland Portugal
The reservoirs of Campilhas and Monte da Rochaboth located in the Sado river basin, present respectively 11% and 10% of their capacityit’s from Bravery, in the Western Algarve, only 12% of the total volume stored. And an even more worrying fact stands out: the Monte da Rocha reservoir grew by just 1% in three months.
“I’ll give you a number that speaks for itself: From the 1st to the 19th of December, 44% of national electricity came from hydro plants (…) I would say that we are much more relieved, that is, we have water for about two, three years, even considering the average dry years. It is indeed a fantastic occupation.” – José Pimenta Machado, vice-president of the APA, speaking to RTP1.
According to the SNIRH-APA, Last Monday (2) the Lima and Douro basins showed greater water storage (94.3%)followed by Vouga (94.1%), Tejo (91.9%), Ave (89.2%) and Guadiana (85.1%). At the opposite extreme, the watersheds of the Barlavento Algarvio (11.5%), Mira (36.9%), Arade (41.7%), Alentejo (43.4%), Sado (49%) and Sotavento Algarvio (57%) were the ones with the least water on Monday ( two).