The BE requested this Wednesday an urgent hearing in the Assembly of the Republic of the Minister of the Environment and Climate Action, Duarte Cordeiro, on the reduction of the river water that reaches Portugal and warned of the impacts.
The Left Bloc presented this Wednesday a request for an urgent hearing to the Minister of the Environment for a serious issue, we are aware that Spain is closing the tap of the Portuguese rivers”, said the deputy Mariana Mortágua, pointing out that “the Spaniards The State is approving and putting into practice a hydrological plan in which it plans to contain the flows of the main rivers that bathe Portugal, namely, the Tagus and the Duero River”.
In statements to journalists in the Assembly of the Republic, the blockade defended that “it is urgent that the Government say what it intends to do, especially since this decision by the The Spanish Government violates the Albufeira Conventionthat establishes the conditions of distribution between the flows of the international rivers that both countries share”.
and noted that “40% of the water of the Tagus River may be retained in Spain as a result of this decisiontaken in the face of drought, as a way to “feed their agriculture, which is largely unsustainable and intensive.”
Mariana Mortágua warned that “a the reduction of the flow of international rivers can endanger the production of renewable energy in Portugal through dams, it can also endanger agricultural production that needs these waters to irrigate, but it can also leave some towns without running water or even businesses that need these flows to be able to produce”.
It is a serious situation that must have an urgent response from the Ministry of the Environment, from the Government, taking into account the situation of drought that Portugal is going through and, above all, also the needs for electricity production, taking into account the delicate international context . we are facing each other”, underlined the deputy from BE, justifying the hearing in the Parliamentary Committee on the Environment and Energy.
On Tuesday, the Minister of the Environment and Climate Action, Duarte Cordeiro, assured that “there is no war over water” with Spain and assured that the Government “will continue to favor dialogue” in this regard.
“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.
Source: Observadora
