The Ministers of the Environment and Agriculture highlighted this Friday that the south of the country is in an extreme and severe drought, and they maintained measures to save water, they announced others such as the suspension of new greenhouses in the southwest of Alentejo.
The measures were announced at the end of a meeting of the Permanent Commission for the Prevention, Monitoring and Monitoring of the Effects of the Drought (CPPMAES) by the Ministers of the Environment, Duarte Cordeiro, and of Agriculture, Maria do Céu Antunes.
Citing data from the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and the Atmosphere (IPMA), referring to April 15, the Authorities said that 18.6% of the country is already in severe drought and 10.1% in extreme drought.
The severe drought affects the south of the country and a small part of the northeast of Trás-os-Montes, and the extreme drought affects the south of the country, warned the Minister of Agriculture.
At the CPPMAES meeting, he explained, measures were taken or maintained for the southern region, Alentejo and Algarve, one of them, in the Mira area, being the prohibition of new permanent crop facilities and “greenhouses and the like”.
“We are entering a difficult period again”, being April 15 “with a situation that already looks very difficult”warned Maria do Céu Antunes.
In fact, he added, the outlook is for the situation to get worse.
As for the reservoirs, although most safely guarantee this year’s irrigation campaign, there are several in the south with contingencies for human supply and agriculture.
Maria do Céu Antunes referred to the hydro-agricultural farms of Campilhas and Alto Sado (which includes Campilhas, Fonte Cerne, Monte Gato and Monte da Rocha), which are “in a more difficult situation, with a contingency plan” that could lead to in some cases even prohibiting the use of water for irrigation.
And also in Mira, specifically Santa Clara, and in the hydro-agricultural developments that include Silves, Lagoa and Portimão, and Alvor, de Bravura.
In the case of Silves, Lagoa and Portimão, The transfer of water from the Funcho to Arade reservoirs and the implementation of the contingency plan are planned. The two catches recovered last year remain in Alvor, said the minister.
With Campilhas and Alto Sado with total restrictions for agriculture, the minister said that in Mira, based on an agreement between the two ministries and the farmers, it was decided to lower the collection quota, associated with a “very restrictive contingency plan”. .
The minister said that this Friday she issued an order that for now will prohibit the installation of new permanent crops in the benefited areas “as well as the installation of new greenhouses and the like.”
“And we are not going to allow irrigation in particular for areas that were also not irrigated in 2022,” he added.
In Mira, investments are being made to rehabilitate the irrigation canal, for example, and there are also plans to build a desalination plant. There are also investments in Campilhas and Alto Sado, which will be completed in 2025, not to mention the investments already underway in the Algarve (Alvor, Silves, Lagoa and Portimão).
Maria do Céu Antunes pointed out that After the drought situation is decreed, measures can be created to help farmers.
In a statement released this Friday on the situation of April 15, the IPMA states that the maximum air temperature was almost always above average, that there was a heat wave from April 2 to 11 in half of the weather stations , and that the precipitation values were “much lower than normal” throughout the territory, and in the south it did not rain.
On April 15, in terms of meteorological drought, in 21.8% of the territory the situation was normal, in 28.3% mild drought, in 21.2% moderate drought, in 18.6% drought severe and in 10.1 extreme drought.
Source: Observadora
