The drought in the Algarve prevents the opening of a new bathing area in the Odeleite dam, in Castro Marim, whose water quota does not allow the placement of floating pools, the vice president of the municipality told Lusa.
The water level currently in the Odeleite dam, the largest in the eastern (east) of the Algarve, is around 42.09% of the useful volume, insufficient value to allow the safe opening of this new bathing areaan axis created by the municipality to develop the interior of the municipality, explained Filomena Sintra.
The area, located on a hillside to the west of the town of Odeleite, is, according to the mayor, the new beach of the Algarve, but for now there are no “conditions to put floating pools” to allow its use, since the access ladder to the water ends a few meters above the current water line.
Now that we would be in the phase of placing the final equipment and the modules for the bathrooms, for the bar, the support services and placing the floating pools, we are faced with the reality that the height of the dam does not allow us, for sure , we put the floating pools there, because they would be too far from the area of stairs of the nautical activities center itself, ”lamented the mayor.
According to Filomena Sintra, those responsible for the project took into account the monthly average since the dam came into operation and designed the ladder that will serve as a mooring point for the floating pools and will adjust to the water level, considering this history and also the predictions .
However, during the last four years, the situation of drought and lack of rain has worsenedespecially in the northeast of the Algarve, but also in the west (west), conditioning the opening of the center of nautical activities in the dam.
Filomena Sintra was, however, convinced that the work carried out in the region in terms of water management will increase the water reserves and ensure that the dam reaches ideal levels for the use of the area by bathers.
“We believe that, with the new solutions that may exist for the storage, collection, rationalization of water for the Algarve, this is a problem that will not become more acute, because that would mean that we would have to rethink our Algarve”, he considered.
The vice president has also explained that, although the project is “prepared to have a oscillation in height at a level of 15 meters” when mooring the floating pools, at this time “people would have to go down a large staircase to reach the pools” . and “that is not the objective”, because the ladder must “be at the height of the sand that was installed there”.
The mayor hopes that the conditions will soon change so that the project, budgeted at around 900,000 euros, enters the exploration phase, also allowing “drawing people in” of the county and help the development of the area.
After several vicissitudes with the approval of projects and plans, which caused delays in the work, now it is the lack of water that conditions its development and this leaves neighbors and local workers incredulous before the entry into operation of the Odeleite nautical center . prey.
Cecília Neves works at the restaurant closest to the place where the nautical center was built and told Lusa that she believes that “it will really take a while” for that structure to come into operation.
“At first they talked about a river beach and now, at this moment, the population, at least, says that it will be a nautical center. Now, sure, I don’t know which one it will be, but either one would be good for business here in the area and for the restaurant,” he said.
The same source admitted that he expected the project to be ready last year, but acknowledged that “this year it is a bit hard to believe” that it will be ready to receive people.
“It takes a long time, let’s see,” said the employee of that restaurant, expressing the hope that it will still rain and there will be an improvement in water levels to allow the nautical center of the Odeleite dam to start operating.
The Minister of Agriculture and Food, Maria do Céu Antunes, said on Monday that she had signed the order recognizing the situation of drought in 40% of the national territoryin the south of the country.
The order was signed on Friday, after the authority received data from the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and the Atmosphere (IPMA) certifying that in the last two months there has been no rain, there were “three heat waves during the month of April” and they have been “average and maximum temperatures well above normal.”
Source: Observadora
