"Nothing is out of the question", but the minister of Environment and Climate Action also says that "it is not with more dams that the problem of the lack of water in the Algarve will be solved". João Matos Fernandes was this Monday, 3 February, in Loulé, to participate in a seminar on adaptation to climate change, where he also hinted that desalination could even advance.
The VI Meeting of the Local Council for Monitoring the Municipal Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change in Loulé started this morning, with the presence of the government official, at the Cineteatro Louletano.
The topic is on the agenda and Matos Fernandes did not escape talking about the lack of water that plagues the Algarve. The minister guaranteed that, by March, «we will have the bases for a Water Efficiency Plan for the Algarve».
“We shouldn't have the perspective that the weather will help us. In other words: the Algarve, in the long term, will not have more water than it has today. We must ensure that, at least, there will be no less», he explained to journalists.
And how is this achieved?
For the minister, it is necessary both "a more efficient use of water, in agriculture, in the rule of golf courses and in the use by municipalities and citizens", as "very likely", the construction of infrastructure that "possibly increase water availability'.
This is where the debate comes in. AMAL – Algarve Intermunicipal Community has defended both the construction of a dam in Foupana (Alcoutim) and the advance of desalination. The Algfuturo association, in turn, went public with the use of the Guadiana as a solution.
In this regard, Matos Fernandes said that “we have, on the table, two projects for two dams – one in Monchique, the other in Foupana – and desalination”.
Despite not wanting to commit (yet) to any solution, the minister insisted on explaining how today "we can look at desalination with completely different eyes."
“This is a very energy-consuming activity and, as such, water is expensive. Now, this Government launched an auction for solar energy that allowed us to have an average electricity price of around 20 euros per megawatt/hour. With this new value of electricity, we can look at desalination as a much cheaper solution than what we looked at one, two years ago», he considered.
So, yes, in the government's opinion, "if we can have water produced from salt water, at a market price, we should really focus on it [desalination]."
The first study work, under the responsibility of the company Águas do Algarve, has already started and Matos Fernandes sent any certainty to «the end of February». "There we will have news, in which the calendars and values will be on the table", he added.
And the dam? It's out of the question? "There is nothing out of the question," the minister immediately replied to the journalists' questions, leaving, however, a message.
«It is not with more dams that the problem will be solved. Sotavento already has two dams: they have little water. What I don't want is to exchange two empty dams for three empty dams», he shot.
In the opinion of Matos Fernandes, the two new WWTPs that the Algarve has – in Companheira (Portimão) and Faro/Olhão – can also play an important role.
These are “exceptional capable infrastructures and, with this, we also gain here the capacity to inject treated water for a set of uses, such as watering golf courses or cleaning streets”, he concluded.
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