The proposal of the Northern Regional Spatial Planning Program (PROT) establishes that water scarcity is “gaining ground” in the region “in a marked manner”, which is why it aims to “improve the water resilience of the territory” in the coming years.
“Although, traditionally, the North is not identified as one of the scarcity regions in continental Portugal, the region, in the context of each sub-basin, reflects very specific specificities that climate change is accentuatedand where scarcity is gaining ground, markedly,” can be read in the PROT Norte proposal, which entered public consultation today.
Thus, “sustainable water management requires mechanisms that promote the good use of water resources, such as planning, integrated management, the implementation of laws and regulations that promote the responsible use of water and continuous monitoring.”
“The North, in a longer cycle, The water resilience of the territory will have to be improved. to better resist risks and water scarcity,” the document reads, adding that “the regularization of water lines can promote better management of surface waters.”
On the other hand, “the continuation floor waterproofing and the appearance of serious phenomena such as rural firestoward torrential rains, aggravated by climate change, they have promoted conditions for less water infiltration, greater soil water erosion and an increase in the occurrence of floods,” he warns.
“It is necessary to adopt territorial planning solutions capable of preserving and increasing the capacity for water retention and infiltration, from high elevations to valleys, through the containment of waterproofing and the preservation and promotion of the vegetation cover that best contributes to these functions. ” , says.
One of the measures of PROT Norte’s Transformative Agenda is to “increase the availability of water and the efficiency in its agricultural use,” and points out that, as the region “has different patterns of water availability (spatial and seasonal),” it is necessary to “create conditions so that the entire regional territory has water available for different uses throughout the hydrological year.”
To increase “water storage capacity,” the program suggests “creation of new reservoirs”the “better use of existing reservoirs”, and the “promotion of rainwater collection and storage systems where water scarcity is the most limiting factor, such as the Duero or the Terras de Trás-os-Montes”.
These subregions coincide with “the largest investments in recent years in terms of vineyards, olive trees, almond trees, apple trees and chestnut trees.”
“The adoption of political measures of this nature has the potential to increase the irrigated area by at least 25% (until 2030), through new hydro-agricultural developments” and “recover up to 10% of the identified traditional irrigation areas”, also investing in ponds and systems for more efficient water use.
According to the document, there are “two groups of strategic objectives that must be reconcilable: increasing the availability of water and improving the efficiency of its use in agricultural activities.”
Thus, the region proposes to “develop new irrigation areas”, “expand, rehabilitate and modernize existing irrigation areas”, “adopt more efficient irrigation methods”, “when possible, reclassify existing hydraulic infrastructures as multipurpose enterprises” and “adopt the use of rainwater.”
The “restoration and environmental requalification, both of riverside galleries (structuring elements of ecological connectivity and water quality, and of headwater areas and protection strips of the hydrological network”), is also one of the objectives.
Source: Observadora
