The National Association of Municipalities of Portugal (ANMP) and the Portuguese Association for Water Distribution and Sanitation (APDA) signed this Tuesday a Declaration of Commitment for the Adaptation and Mitigation of Climate Change in Water Services.
The declaration of commitment was signed during the morning, at the ANMP headquarters, in Coimbra, by the president of this organization, Luísa Salgueiro, and by the president of APDA, Rui Godinho.
With this document, the ANMP and the APDA commit to “promote the necessary efforts to adapt to and mitigate climate change, particularly with regard to to water services, to guarantee future generations“.
In statements to the Lusa agency, the president of the ANMP, Luísa Salgueiro, stressed that this agreement serves to “work reciprocally on the essential objective of better management of water resources.”
“It is always a very important objective and currently it takes on a particular opportunity, since the country and several municipalities face a problem of water scarcity. we are now consider saving measures”, held.
The also president of the Municipality of Matosinhos highlighted the importance of this alliance with APDA, an association “very well equipped from the point of view of knowledge in this field”.
“Our teams will work in partnership, in order to assess the problems that the municipalities transmit to us and also to implement national measures, in terms of a more rational management of water,” he concluded.
The declaration of commitment signed on this day lists the various instruments developed in Portugal in this area, including the Action Program for Adaptation to Climate Change 2020-2030, the National Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change, the creation of the Permanent Commission for the Prevention, Monitoring and Follow-up of the Effects of Drought and Intermunicipal and Municipal Strategies/Plans for Adaptation to Climate Change”,fundamental pillars to support a just ecological transitioncompetitive and inclusive.
“In order to adapt effectively, we must apply the best knowledge and experience in the diagnosis and prediction of the impacts that are generated in the availability of water, both in quality and quantity, and in extreme phenomena such as droughts and floods, which are increasingly are more frequent. and intensity, and which directly affect and will affect supply and sanitation services”.
In the water sector, it is emphasized that the implementation of mitigation measures must also be promoted, “among which those related to the circular economy and the improvement of energy and water efficiency and the use of natural resources stand out, with the aim of reducing the carbon footprint“.
“Notwithstanding all the work already done to date, we are sure that, as a whole, the urban water supply and sanitation services sector can go further in its duty to support, propose and operationalize strategies and measures to combat the climate emergency”, reads the declaration of commitment.
Source: Observadora
