The president of the Association of Beneficiaries of the Sotavento do Algarve Irrigation Plan warned today that the water cuts announced to cope with the drought in the region are unbalanced and should be reviewed.
At issue are the announced reductions in water consumption in the Algarve of 70% for agriculture and 15% for urban consumption, cuts that Macário Correia considered “unfair” for agriculture, warning that if they are not rethought they could cause the “death of crops” throughout the region.
“What has been announced seems to us to be very unbalanced and unfair. Agriculture being cut by 70% means the death of crops and a drop in production for two years. We can’t accept that. It’s not a fair measure, nor is it balanced,” said Macário Correia, speaking to Lusa news agency.
The president of the association of irrigators in the eastern Algarve said that “there is a loss of 30 cubic hectometres” in the urban water cycle, according to official data from the Algarve Water Efficiency Plan, and criticized the lack of action to combat these losses on the part of the region’s 16 municipalities.
“The municipalities as a whole are losing 30,000,000 cubic meters of treated water and this has been the case for several years. There has been no consistent evolution from year to year. It’s an issue that should have been resolved, there’s plenty of money for it at the moment, but it’s not being invested at the rate that would be desirable,” he argued.
Macário Correia argued that we can’t afford to see water from the dams being wasted “which is already treated and is lost in the pipes without being used”, especially “in a country with little water and, in particular, in a region like the Algarve, with a considerable shortage, terrible climates and several successive droughts from year to year”.
The former mayor of Tavira and Faro countered that agriculture in the region, “according to official data, as a whole, loses five cubic hectometers”, while “the urban cycle is losing 30 [cubic hectometers]”.
“This is not acceptable and then the ones who lose the most are the ones who have the least reduction, only 15% [the urban circuit], and the ones who use water better, who invest in it better to produce food, have cuts of 70%. It’s not fair,” he added.
Macário Correia said he hoped that the authorities would still be able to review the announced cuts, because if this doesn’t happen there will be “exports that won’t be made” and “imports that will have to increase”, as well as jobs that will “naturally be at stake” and “products that will become more expensive”.
“It would be convenient if this cut – which we understand and accept and obviously have to make an effort to do – were more evenly distributed among everyone. Some people can’t cut 15%, those who waste the most water pointlessly and lose 30 hectometers, and those who use water more efficiently have to cut 70%. It doesn’t make sense,” he concluded.
Last Friday, the Minister for the Environment and Climate Action said that it was necessary to reduce the water availability of the Odeleite reservoir in the east by 70% and the Funcho-Arade reservoir in the west by 50%.
According to Duarte Cordeiro, the measures being worked on to reduce urban consumption (tourism and domestic) by 15% have not all been completed, but the most obvious one, which is being worked on, is reducing water pressure.
The set of measures being studied will be defined at a meeting of the Interministerial Drought Commission, which is due to take place on Wednesday in the Algarve.
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