There is a “Guadiana Solution” that can help to mitigate the water problems in the Algarve in the short term, but also ideas for dealing with this threat in the medium and long term. All of them came out of the cycle of debates on the availability and use of water promoted by the University of Algarve and the Algfuturo association for about a month.
Between December 28th and January 25th, the promoters of the cycle took the discussion on this issue to Tavira, Faro, Silves and Lagos.
In the end, according to Algfuturo, the conclusion was reached that, in the short term, water from the Guadiana could be used, after a work that would take about a year and a half, and which is seen by those responsible for Algfuturo as the ideal solution.
Algfuturo submitted the so-called “Guadiana Solution”, a “fundamental short-term objective”, to the appreciation of the “recognized expert” António Carmona Rodrigues, former mayor of Lisbon, who has a degree in engineering, a doctorate in environmental engineering and postgraduate studies. graduated in hydraulic engineering.
Carmona Rodrigues endorsed the Guadiana as a source of reinforcement and defined a concrete pre-study.
According to Algfuturo, "the solution consists of capturing water on the right bank of the Guadiana, near Pomarão, in its national section, with a pipeline to carry water to the Odeleite reservoir, which will make it possible to increase the availability of water in the Sotavento and Barlavento, through the existing pipeline».
The association speaks of a reinforcement that can be “in the order of 30 to 60 hm3/year, corresponding to about two thirds of the water consumption billed by waters in the Algarve for one year and corresponding to a value higher than the water consumed by the irrigation perimeters with superficial origin'.
The required pipeline would cost “20 to 25 million euros. "The solution is very advantageous in relation to others, because it is faster, cheaper and can be made compatible in the future with other solutions, namely with the Foupana dam (which is being boosted by AMAL)".
With “immediate effects”, it is necessary to start “with the fight against network losses and savings in consumption on all fronts: domestic, agriculture, tourism, public spaces, swimming pools, etc.”. "Use of groundwater in a controlled manner" should also be done.
Other solutions pointed out by the association, in this case for the medium and long term, are « desalination, reuse of wastewater, Foupana dam and medium and small dams and weirs».
Comments