Due to the drought in the Algarve, water’s days are numbered

“It was complicated last year. We’re entering a phase of near chaos,” said António Pina, President of the International Community of the Algarve.

The drought situation is serious: it is estimated that the Algarve only has water for eight months and measures must be taken.

The Portuguese Environment Agency expects to present a contingency plan later this month with new rules for water consumption in the Algarve, given that the region is going through the worst drought on record. “We’re going through the worst drought ever, we’ve never been in this situation, with the lowest levels of reservoir reserves ever and the same thing in groundwater,” the vice-president of the APA, José Pimenta Machado, told Lusa.

António Pina, president of the International Community of the Algarve, also said: “It was complicated last year. We’re entering a phase of near chaos”.

Concerns are also expressed by the president of Turismo do Algarve, who says that “all sectors are relevant, but the one that will suffer the greatest impact from the measure will be agriculture,” says André Gomes.
The six reservoirs in the Algarve are at 25% of their capacity, 20 percentage points less than in the same period last year, with a total of 90 cubic hectometers less water.

Some of the measures planned to combat the drought in the region are to make seawater drinkable, through the first large desalination plant for the Albufeira area, with a capacity of 16 million cubic meters, and the Sotavento transfer, with a connection between the Pomarão and the Guadiana.