The Minister of the Environment and Climate Action, Duarte Cordeiro, assured on Tuesday that “there is no war over water” with Spain and assured that the Government “will continue to favor dialogue” on the matter.
“There is no war over water. There is, on the part of Portugal and Spain, a joint and permanent work (…) and what is an understanding regarding a particularly difficult year on one side and the other, ”said the official in Manteigas, in the district of Guarda, on the sidelines a visit to emergency stabilization works in Serra da Estrela and a meeting with mayors of the area affected by the fire in August.
During Cordeiro, he mentioned that, regarding the issue of water, the governments of the two countries will privilege “joint communication” Y “joint contact”.
“We have been in contact with Spain, about what are the responsibilities that both countries have in terms of the international commitments they assume and we are going, naturally, as we have always done, to respect what international commitments are. And, obviously, we believe that Spain also has respect for the international commitments it assumes on its side”, she declared.
He also referred that “any situation that has to do with the understanding of the problems that are being experienced, of course must be discussed, talked about and discussed between the two countries.”
“That is what we will continue to do,” he said, assuming that the drought is a structural problem and the government “will continue to privilege dialogue, which is the correct way to solve problems.”
On the 22nd, the delegate of the central Government of Spain in the Autonomous Community of Castilla y León, Virgínia Barcones, said that Spain will maintain the flow of water from the rivers to Portugal and will respect the bilaterally agreed flows.
“Spain is a serious state that complies with the international agreements it signs,” said Virgínia Barcones, in response to questions from journalists in the Spanish city of León, quoted by the EFE news agency.
The representative of the Spanish central government in the Autonomous Community of Castilla y León, which borders the districts of Braganza and Guarda, added that, in Portugal, the destination of the waters of the rivers shared by both countries “has the same restrictions due to the drought than in Spain”.
The Minister of the Environment and Climate Action also recalled that today a resolution of the Council of Ministers has been published that determines that, as of October 1, the water resource of 15 reservoirs is temporarily suspended, “until reaching the quotas of its useful capacity to be established”.
“This is done as a reserve for the period that we will live in the coming months, to guarantee the security of the energy supply”, explained Duarte Cordeiro.
The Government’s measure is framed in the context of strengthening energy security measures and was adopted “to add a level of flow that strengthens the country’s energy security.”
Source: Observadora
