"Water is, in fact, an economic good, when it reaches our taps", said today João Matos Fernandes, Minister of Environment and Climate Action, to justify the decision to charge more for water, in the Algarve, to maintain two works that will be paid 100% with European funds.
The member of the Government was in the Algarve this Wednesday to carry out a water itinerary, which began at the Odeleite Dam, where he will advance the first work foreseen in the Recovery and Resilience Plan to be carried out in the region, which aims to the use of dead volume from the Odeleite Dam.
On the sidelines of the session, the member of the Government confirmed that the investments for desalination and the connection to Pomarão “are 100% financed. In other words, the investment itself will not bring additional costs to anyone».
«These two systems are two safe to guarantee that all water uses in the Algarve can have the resource. This ranges from urban use, by common citizens, to agriculture and tourism, namely golf courses. And what we wanted to say was that this life insurance has to be reimbursed for all these uses», he explained.
“What is not fair is that only urban consumers should pay the surcharge, which will always be very small. It hardly matters here the amount of the increase, which will be very small, it is a question of justice», defended João Matos Fernandes.
Questioned by Sul Informação on why this logic, apparently, only applies to the Algarve and water – so far, the intention to charge an extraordinary fee to the population of another region, associated with PRR works has not been announced -, the minister alleged that the water is “an economic good when it reaches our taps”.
"Water is an essential good for life, but what reaches our taps has, in fact, a cost in its collection, treatment and distribution," he said.
“A system that is unbalanced from an economic and financial point of view is necessarily unbalanced from an environmental point of view. That is: if there is no fair price for water, there is no way to guarantee, over time, the quality of these same systems”, he added.
Despite these justifications, criticism of this decision has already come from various quarters, not only from opposition parties, namely from the PSD and CFP, but also, from civil society.
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