The Minister of the Environment is clear about the water shortage in the Algarve. “The first priority is to save, the second is to reuse and the third is to increase the capacity of existing facilities. Water will always be a scarce commodity in the Algarve,” underlines Maria Graça Carvalho in an interview with the newspaper Público.

The Government wants to combat water waste in the Algarve public supply network through an investment of 44 million euros only for the rehabilitation of the urban network.

“Only applications of 27.2 million euros. The municipalities are still behind. They have to accelerate,” warns the Minister of the Environment. “We have losses of 35% nationally and 30% in the Algarve. If we could reduce the losses by half or 10%, we would gain a lot,” he explains.

The hypothesis of building two new dams, one in Alportel (municipality of São Brás de Alportel) and another in the Foupana area (which crosses the municipalities of Alcoutim and Castro Marim), is being evaluated by the Government of Luís Montenegro. “The Portuguese Environment Agency tells us that [a hipótese de Alportel] It could be interesting because, in addition to the water reserve, it would solve the flooding problems in Tavira,” says Graça Carvalho.

However, the minister issues a warning, without committing to give any positive or negative response to the construction: “All projects must undergo a very rigorous environmental impact study and must take into account mitigation measures.”

The collection of water from the Guadiana River advances

Minister Graça Carvalho wants to follow the schedule that foresees completing the capture of Pomarão (Mértola municipality) in the second quarter of 2026. The project aims to capture water from the Guadiana River and send it through pipelines to the Odeleite dam, in a route of more than 30 km.

“Talks with Spain are already underway. They asked for more information,” she explains.

In these negotiations, one of the compensations that the Spanish Government could request could be the transfer of water from the Alqueva dam to southern Spain. But Graça Carvalho guarantees that such a hypothesis “is not on the table.”

The Minister of the Environment also explained the lifting of restrictions in the Algarve in relation to the distribution of water, decided by the Government and which should be formalized in the Council of Ministers on June 10, with the reduction in consumption expected to exceed 25 % to 13%. % in general terms.

“Last year we had reservoirs in the Algarve at around 23%. This year we have 43%. In the rest of the country it was 63% in 2021 and now we have 88%. From January to March, the Algarve recovered 80 hm3 of water,” explains the Minister of the Environment.

That is, the reduction of restrictions was due to an improvement in climatic conditions and an increase in the capacity of dams in the Algarve.