The environmental association Zero warned this Friday that Spain is drying up the Portuguese international rivers, with the Douro the most affectedand defended the need to define ecological flows capable of ensuring the conservation of ecosystems.
The situation caused by the drought in the Tagus and in all international rivers “should lead the governments of Spain and Portugal (…) to make a balance of the flows of the three main Portuguese international rivers: Duero, Tagus and Guadiana.
At this time, the Management Plans of the Hydrographic Regions for the period 2022-2027 are under public discussion and this is the right time for a consultation between the two countries,” said the environmental association.
According to Zero’s evaluation, which used data from the National Information System for Water Resources registered until September 3, the Duero lacks a third of the volume of water compared to what is established in the agreements.
Spain had transferred 2,331 cubic hectometres of water since October 1, 2021, when the annual flow is 3,500 cubic hectometres, thus missing some 1,169 cubic hectometres, about 33% of the total owed”, reads the document, in which that the association warns that “with the flows of recent weeks varying between 1.5 and 4.5 cubic hectometers/day and without having substantially changed the weather situation, it is evident that it is impossible to recover the volume of water that is missing”.
In the Tagus, it is also “practically certain” that Spain “will have to claim” the exception regime for non-compliance with the annual flowaccording to the organization, since, in situations of drought, it is expected that Spain will not be able to deliver the flows to Portugal.
Data collected on September 3 for the tributary flow to the Fratel dam revealed that they were about 15 percent missing (393 cubic hectometres) of the annual fixed flow (2,700 cubic hectometres).
EITHER The Guadiana was 20 days without reaching the minimum daily flow and 17% below the annual minimum at the beginning of September, with Spain invoking an exceptional situation so as not to comply with the flows.
Spain has to guarantee an average daily value of two cubic meters per second and from October 1, 2021 to September 3, there were 20 days in which this did not happen. Once again, despite the enormous capacity of the Alqueva reservoir, in the long term, the expansion of irrigation could be at risk with these restrictions associated with more frequent and extreme drought situations”, Zero warns in the statement.
The evaluation was carried out a few weeks before the end of the hydrological year, which runs from October 1, 2021 to September 30, 2022, based on the hydrometric stations provided or equivalent in the Cooperation Agreement for the Protection and Sustainable Use of the Waters of the Luso-Spanish Hydrographic Basins.
Source: Observadora
