With the rain that has fallen in the region this fall/winter, farmers in Trás-os-Montes hope to have a guaranteed campaign. But the water problem is structural in municipalities such as Carrazeda de Ansiães, where even in 2022 they had to get in tankers to supply the population. “There’s also a water deficit in the north”
On arriving in Carrazeda de Ansiães, on the plateau of Trás-os-Montes, we are welcomed by a drizzle of rain amidst the intense fog that makes it difficult to see beyond an inch of road. This fall/winter has been wet in the region, as it has been throughout the north of Portugal, with rainfall levels above the average recorded since 1981, according to the Portuguese Institute for the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA).
The Fontelonga Barragem (reservoir), on the town’s doorstep, is almost overflowing. So are the three ponds that Luís Vila Real has on his land to water the apple orchards that cover 32 hectares. “In principle, this year’s campaign is guaranteed, but it’s always uncertain,” he says cautiously, recalling how, the previous year, a late hailstorm destroyed “more than 90% of the production”.
In this municipality, which stretches as far as the Douro and Tua valleys, apples compete with wine and olive oil as the most representative crops. While vineyards and olive groves dominate the valley landscapes, orchards are more concentrated on the plateau, at a higher altitude, where the apple row that makes the region famous is located.
Luís Vila Real is one of its largest producers and is currently president of Afuvopa – the association that brings together the fruit growers, wine growers and olive growers of the Ansiães plateau. And while water isn’t the factor that torments him most today, the very recent memory of years of extreme drought, such as the one that hit the region in 2022, leads him not to be fooled: water “is” a structural problem that questions the survival of apple growing in Carrazeda. At least, with the importance and dimension that it has at this time, he says.
Apple, wine and olive oil crops represent something like 25 million euros a year for the municipality. And while wine continues to be the main economic sector in this municipality, which is part of the Douro Demarcated Region, apple production follows close behind, with a huge increase in the area of orchards planted over the last few decades that have helped change the landscape of a plateau previously dominated by cereals and fodder crops (for animal pasture). “Apple growing had its explosion there in the 1990s and until the first decade of the 21st century it was a very profitable crop,” says Luís Vila Real.
That’s not quite the case now. Carrazeda de Ansiães produces between 25 and 30 thousand tons of apples a year, spread over 800 hectares, if production isn’t affected by a lack of water or bad weather such as last spring’s hailstorm – vineyards occupy almost 3000 hectares and olive groves around 2000 in the municipality’s agricultural area. Luís has 32 hectares at the moment, although he is converting an older part that he guarantees he will no longer replant.
The reasons are “various”, he told DN. “The prices of production factors have skyrocketed to such an extent that it’s no longer profitable. Especially labor, which is completely out of control. It’s scarce, bad and expensive. And climate change is also taking its toll here, from extreme weather phenomena such as hail to the lack of water, which is dramatic in the increasingly frequent years of drought.”
In 2022, the long months without rain even led to water supply problems for the population during the summer, with the municipality resorting to tankers to transport water from the River Tua, in order to ensure the necessary levels for public consumption.
João Gonçalves, the town’s mayor, is well aware of how difficult it was to ensure that the town didn’t run out of water. “We had to create a contingency plan from May onwards.” In addition to raising awareness among the population to save on domestic consumption, the municipality, the main consumer of urban water in the county, stopped watering gardens and other public spaces, as well as resorting to a reservoir outside the county to supply the outdoor swimming pools that are a summer attraction.
Even so, it didn’t avoid having to fetch water from the Tua to reinforce the local reservoir, Fontelonga, which is now almost overflowing, but which wasn’t even at dead volume two years ago. “We’re talking about a small reservoir built in the early 1980s. When it’s full, it doesn’t hold more than 900,000 cubic meters. If we have two years of drought together, as we did before 2022, we can certainly expect problems,” he says.
“There’s also a water problem in the north”
That’s why both the mayor of Trás-os-Montes and the president of Afuvopa turn up their noses when they hear requests to transfer water from the Douro basin to the south of the country.
In Carrazeda de Ansiães, excess water to the north is a meaningless idea when some of the last few years have been marked by difficulties in supplying crops and the population. Especially when there is still a lack of capacity to retain rainwater in wetter winters, such as the current one, without the much-desired new dam in the municipality, which is in the final stages of planning, being built.
“I don’t see that the north has too much water,” says Luís Vila Real, stressing that “no water structures have been created to store water that would actually be surplus to the crops grown here in the region”. In addition, he stresses, “the south of the country is suffering a phenomenon which is the advance of the North African climate and an almost inevitable desertification which requires other adaptations”. And he points to the “super-intensive olive and almond plantations that are sucking up the water from the Alqueva”, as well as the red fruit greenhouses in Mira or the avocado plantations in the Algarve, all crops “that require a lot of water all year round”.
Rui Cortes, especialista em recursos hídricos e professor da Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD), também reprova a ideia de transvases. Não só essas infraestruturas “implicam investimentos muito elevados, que aumentariam umas cinco vezes o custo da água”, como “são trágicas em termos de ambiente e ordenamento do território”, diz ao DN. “Temos de preservar os ecossistemas aquáticos e a sua qualidade”, refere o também membro do Conselho Nacional da Água e do movimento de defesa da bacia hidrográfica do Douro ‘MovRioDouro’, lembrando que a diretiva-quadro da água (o principal instrumento da política da União Europeia relativa à Água) é “contrária à ideia de transvases, porque isso implica precisamente uma degradação ambiental”.
Hoje já se fazem desvios de água da zona da Barragem do Sabugal (Douro) para a Barragem da Meimoa (Tejo), para o aproveitamento hidroagrícola da Cova da Beira, “mas são transferências limitadas, nada a ver com o que se reclama agora”.
Além disso, aponta o investigador, estas transferências de água promovem “tensões sociais e regionais” que podem ser difíceis de gerir. E dá o exemplo espanhol do transvase Tejo-Segura, iniciado há mais de 40 anos, que tem gerado cada vez mais protestos dos agricultores do Tejo de onde é retirada a água para alimentar as hortas e o turismo massivo do Levante espanhol (Múrcia, Alicante) – o que levou o Governo espanhol a anunciar já uma redução de 40% nestas transferências a partir de 2027.
O docente da UTAD concorda que este ano tem chovido “mais do que a média” no Norte do país, o que permite ter, nesta altura, a maioria das albufeiras da Bacia do Douro cheias ou quase cheias. Segundo o último boletim de monitorização disponibilizado pela Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente (APA), datado de 8 de janeiro, a bacia hidrográfica do Douro tinha um armazenamento superior a 90% nas respetivas albufeiras, ligeiramente acima da média da época.
Olhando para outro boletim de monitorização, da Direção-Geral da Agricultura e Desenvolvimento Rural, cuja última versão tem a data 12 de janeiro, as reservas hídricas a Norte (do Minho a Trás-os-Montes) chegaram mesmo a estar, no último mês de novembro, ligeiramente acima da média dos anos considerados como húmidos, o que não se verificou em mais nenhuma parte do país.
À medida que vamos descendo para Sul, vai baixando também significativamente o nível de água retido – 70,7% na Bacia do Mondego, 79,4% na do Tejo, 70,5% na do Guadiana – até entrar em zona crítica no Algarve, onde o Sotavento tem apenas 29,1% da sua capacidade de reserva e o Barlavento uns dramáticos 7,8%, mostra o boletim da APA. Ainda assim, apontando para os totais de água retida e não para as médias relativas à capacidade de armazenamento, há mais água disponível nas bacias do Guadiana (3236 hectómetros cúbicos, quase todos no Alqueva) e do Tejo (2191hm3) do que na do Douro (2039 hm3).
Rui Cortes recalls that “fragility is not exclusive to the south of the country” and that “even in 2022 we had water shortages all over the country”. As an example, he adds, “the Alto Lindoso reservoir, in the country’s rainiest area [Alto Minho], was only at 17%” and “in Trás-os-Montes, many people had to be supplied by tanker in the summer”. In other words, “there is also severe water stress in the North and Center”.
The economic importance of irrigation
This stress is most evident in areas that are economically dependent on irrigation. This is the case of the most famous valley in Trás-os-Montes, the Vilariça Valley, which neighbors the Ansiães plateau and covers the municipalities of Vila Flor, Alfândega da Fé and Torre de Moncorvo. This is one of the most fertile valleys in the country and produces a huge variety of vegetables, legumes and fruit that supply the national markets. Peaches, oranges, olive oil and wine are the most famous products of a region with an ideal microclimate for these crops.
Here too, this year’s irrigation campaign is assured, predicts Fernando Brás, president of the Vilariça Valley irrigators’ association: “We have two reservoirs at maximum level and one at 90%.” The concern is to manage the water well, he says.
“We never know what the next season will be like. With climate change, there have been years when we start irrigating in February and sometimes it even lasts until November.”
Irrigation “is fundamental” and its importance, he stresses, “goes far beyond the three municipalities in the valley”. That’s why there are plans afoot to increase water storage capacity, and a tender has already been launched for the construction of a new dam in Vila Flor. The current dams – Santa Justa, Ribeiro Grande and Arco, Burga and Salgueiro – “were designed in the 60s, 70s and 80s of the last century”, points out Fernando Brás. “Now the needs are different,” with the growth of irrigated crops. For this reason, and noting that he understands “the situation of others” further south, where water has become almost a mirage in recent times, Fernando Brás argues that “the region must first worry about meeting its needs” before discussing the possibility of transferring water elsewhere.
We’re back in Carrazeda de Ansiães, where the mayor is “totally relaxed” about the availability of water for next summer, both for supplying the population and for the agricultural campaign. But he doesn’t stop thinking about how much better it would be if a project that hasn’t yet come off the drawing board and which, he says, is “fundamental” for the future of the municipality were to become a reality: the new dam planned for Lugar da Veiga, a valley at the gates of the town and not far from the existing reservoir.
If the infrastructure – which is now “in the final phase of studies” and about to start the execution project – were already installed, much of the abundant water that has fallen this fall/winter “could be retained and not wasted”, increasing the reserves available for drought years. The new reservoir will have a capacity of around three million cubic meters, three times the capacity of Fontelonga, and is designed to “satisfy the need for irrigation”, but also so that it can, “in critical times of drought, reinforce the Fontelonga reservoir in public supply”, says the mayor, elected by the PSD.
There is currently no reservoir for agricultural use in Carrazeda. It is fed by the weather and “by the individual ponds of each producer”. The new water reservoir “will be important not only to maintain the apple sector, an important economic activity in the municipality, but also because it will allow us to develop another type of agricultural production, with greater competitiveness, which could help attract and retain young farmers in the region,” says João Gonçalves.
Reconverting the landscape
Apple orchards are particularly demanding in terms of water consumption. More so than vines or olive groves. On his property, which covers 32 hectares, Luís Vila Real calculates “10,000 liters per hectare per hour” during the irrigation period, which normally runs from May to September. “If I water for two or three hours a day for five months, that’s 96,000 liters a day over 150 days.” That’s a lot of water.
“I have capacity if the three ponds I have are full, as is the case this year. But this is often not the case and if we don’t have a significant reserve of water at the start of the season, the quality of production is immediately compromised,” he says.
Water is fundamental to the quantity and quality of the region’s apples, which include Golden, the “queen” of Carrazeda, but also Royal Gala, Fuji, Jeromine and other varieties. “With less water, the quantity decreases, because the caliber decreases, the size of the fruit is smaller. And you also lose quality because with less water you get drier fruit, it’s not as crunchy, it doesn’t acquire the organoleptic qualities you expect from a high-quality product like the one we produce here,” explains the president of Afuvopa, highlighting the characteristics that stand out in apples from the Ansiães plateau: a hardness, sweetness and aroma typical of production at a certain altitude, around 800 meters.
“Especially those from higher elevations have a very high degree of firmness, a very high degree of preservation and then they take on a pinkish color due to the thermal amplitude that occurs at the time of harvest, with a little heat during the day and a sudden cooling at night.”
However, in years when the skies are much less generous than in this one, as has happened more frequently with climate change, the consequences can be dramatic. “In 2022 and in previous years, we reached April or May without water and had to resort to underground boreholes. I spent five consecutive months drawing water from boreholes 24 hours a day, which is unbearable. Especially when we use energy sources like diesel to run generators, which makes the expense brutal,” says the fruit grower.
“We have to water right from the moment of flowering to ensure that production is regular. If we start using water in February and then there’s no more supply, it gets complicated, because we have to spend water in advance that we’ll need from the summer onwards, critical months in which the temperature exceeds 40 degrees here in the region.” In these years of drought, Luís expects a drop in production of “at least a third”.
The uncertainties surrounding the costs of the various factors of production, which range from water to labor (“a day’s work has risen from 25 euros in 2010 to 60 euros today,” he says), lead Luís Vila Real to fear for the future of the apple cluster in Carrazeda. He himself is already starting to convert a significant part of the land. In the medium term, he plans to keep “only 15 hectares” for apples, on the higher slopes.
The future may lie with olive groves, he says, which don’t need “as much water” and are starting to work better at higher altitudes, due to the increase in temperatures felt on the slopes. “It’s a trend due to climate change,” he says.
And the olive grove has another feature that gives it an advantage: it allows for the mechanization of almost the entire production process, since the harvesting “can be done with a mechanical awning, you don’t need 30, 40, 50 people, as I get there during the apple picking season, two or three months in a row”.
Researcher Rui Cortes points out that “agriculture is responsible for the vast majority of water consumption in Portugal, at 77%”. And the way forward, he says, cannot be to build more dams which “cause a deterioration in water quality” and are also important emitters of gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. The only option is to “wake up to minimally sustainable agriculture”, he stresses. From north to south: “We’re having irrigated vineyards, olive groves and almond groves. Dryland farming is disappearing and irrigation is unsustainable.”
In Carrazeda de Ansiães, the president of Afuvopa doesn’t accept this fate. There, “all conversion depends and will always depend on irrigation”, he argues. “Whether it’s to plant olive groves, pear trees or something else. Otherwise, it’s not worth it,” he says. “I understand the concerns, I also try to have the most environmentally friendly practices possible. But it’s all very well to talk about indigenous crops and dry farming, but in practice it’s not profitable. It doesn’t produce. I challenge someone to come and grow these crops and make a living from it. How are you going to feed the country afterwards? Will you go back to poverty? Or do you import everything? That’s not environmentally sustainable either.”