The Minister for the Environment and Climate Action ruled out, for now, the adoption of prohibitive measures regarding water consumption, such as for swimming pools, in view of the drought situation that is experienced mainly in the south of the country.
“There is no point in introducing a culture of prohibition when it is not needed right now. When it is necessary, we do not hesitate, as happened when we limited, for example, certain dams in the Monte da Rocha area, or the decision taken by the Minister of Agriculture to limit new crops in the Mira [river] area”, told journalists in Porto, Duarte Cordeiro, on the sidelines of the launch of the public tender for the construction of the Ruby Line of the metro.
The minister had been asked about possible bans, for example, on private swimming pools and, previously, about exceptional measures taken following the drought situation, especially in the south of the country, whose statement was made on Monday.
“Some exceptional measures have already been taken”, he said, after an inter-ministerial drought commission was convened “at the end of April”, Duarte Cordeiro told journalists.
According to the minister, the most critical areas were identified at that meeting: the western Algarve and the Alentejo coastline, “namely the Mira [river] area, associated with the Santa Clara dam”.
“There are restrictions that we applied in relation to a set of dams, both in the Alentejo and in the Barlavento area, and there are restrictions on new crops for the Mira area, because at the moment we have to capture water at a level below what is the quota at which we usually fetch water”, he explained, referring to the measure taken by the Minister of Agriculture, Maria do Céu Antunes.
Duarte Cordeiro also recalled that currently, “in general the country, at this moment, the country has more water available than it had last year”, with an average level of 80% of water in the reservoirs.
“At the moment we have an asymmetrical situation, in some areas of the country we do not anticipate that we will have, at this moment, a water supply problem. We have two areas of the country, Litoral Alentejano and the Barlavento area, where we had to apply measures to rationally manage the resources we have available”, he explained.
The situation of meteorological drought worsened in mainland Portugal in April, with 89% of the mainland in drought, 34% of which in severe and extreme drought, according to the IPMA.
On Monday, the Minister of Agriculture and Food, Maria do Céu Antunes, informed that she had signed the dispatch that recognizes the drought situation in 40% of the national territory, in the south of the country.
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