The six dams that supply the Algarve are at 34% of their total water storage capacity this Monday, having increased five percentage points with the rains of recent days, according to data from the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA).
The Algarve dams have a volume of around 154 cubic hectometers (hm3), corresponding to 34% of the total storage capacity”The rains of recent days have made it possible to allocate 26 hm3, which is equivalent to 35% of the needs of the urban and tourism sector,” the president of the APA explained to Lusa.
Despite an improvement in the situation in the region of the country most affected by the drought, José Pimenta Machado defended the need to maintain savings measuressince it is not known what the evolution of water volumes will be in the future.
“We are better than before, but we have to maintain the same objective, the same water saving plan in the different sectors. That is, for the urban sector 10% and for agriculture and tourism 13%,” he stated.
On the other hand, compared to the same period in 2023, there is an increase of approximately 39 hm3 of stored water, increasing the capacity of the dams from 115 hm3 in the same period of the previous year (26% of the capacity) to 154 hm3 ( 34%).
“The model presented in May, with relief from cuts, adjusts to the available water reserves,” insisted the president of APA.
The Government decided in May to ease previously imposed restrictions on water consumption in the Algarve’s agriculture and urban sector, including tourism, to address the drought in the region.
Restrictions imposed on water consumption increased from 25% to 13% in agriculture and from 15% to 10% in the urban sector.
The leeward (east) reservoirs are the ones that absorbed the most water with the rains of recent days, since it was in this area of the Algarve where the rainfall was most intense.
The Odeleite dam is already at 46% of its capacity (59.36 hm3), the Beliche dam at 38% (18.09 hm3) and the Funcho dam at 37% (17.70 hm3).
In the windward (west) the percentages are less important, with the Odelouca dam registering 31% of its capacity (49.16 hm3), the Arade dam 17% (4.88 hm3) and the Bravura dam with the 13% (4.40 hm3).
After the rains that hit the Algarve between Thursday and Friday, Pimenta Machado wanted to leave a message of “solidarity” to the affected populations, praising the municipalities and the regional Civil Protection for the work carried out.
According to the Climatological Bulletin of the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and the Atmosphere (IPMA) published last Friday, in October there was a very significant decrease in the area under meteorological drought in continental Portugal.
In the Lower Alentejo and the Algarve there was a decrease in the intensity of the meteorological drought, placing these regions in the weak drought class at the end of October.
Source: Observadora
