A few days ago, passing by a place that is familiar to me, I came across a swimming pool about to be installed. I had an instinctive reaction: I stopped the car and watched. I took the measurements and the stupefaction was transformed into incredulity and incomprehension. What makes someone, in a year of severe drought throughout the country and, in particular, in the Algarve, decide to install a swimming pool at home?
According to the latest figures presented by the Government, 36% of the national territory is in severe or extreme drought. The Algarve and Alentejo are, of course, the most affected areas and specific measures have been proposed to mitigate this problem.
The water quota for agriculture in the Odeleite and Beliche dams will be reduced by 20% and the water used in the golf courses will also be reduced by 20%, with Duarte Cordeiro, Minister for the Environment and Climate Action, stating that «in in the case of golf courses and precarious gardens», if there are alternatives, «the cut will be 50%».
A will be created task force with the objective of reducing groundwater consumption in the Algarve by 15% and there is a strong possibility of seeing the Water Law amended, in order to allow for more muscular and concrete actions for the preservation of this essential good for life on earth.
The Association of Municipalities of the Algarve itself has already presented measures, recommending that municipalities at least reduce watering in green spaces and eliminate the washing of equipment, except in cases where there are implications for public health.
And we know that the municipal swimming pools, in the coastal areas, will be closed during the summer period, as happened in previous years.
But the curious thing, and that many of us don't know or don't think about, is that private use represents around 30% of water. Data made available on Regional Water Efficiency Plan, we are told that urban consumption/water distributed by City Councils, companies and municipal services reaches 28,6% of the total water distributed in the Algarve, while in the category Others, which refers to private consumption, private green spaces, private recreational activities , spending is 2,2%. In other words, overall, private consumption consumes around 30% of the water in the Algarve region.
And private individuals are those who install swimming pools in years when we don't know if we will have enough water for agricultural and livestock uses (which guarantee us food); or for basic everyday use.
Those who never had to learn to manage with two liters of water a day, per person, for all their needs (eating, drinking, washing themselves, washing their clothes), as already happens in many countries of the world, namely in Africa; those who never had to walk miles and miles, carrying drums on their backs to collect that vital liquid; those who do not want to think about the future of their children and grandchildren, as it depends on what happens to the Earth and its health. And the Earth without water, what will it be?
Pope Francis says in his Encyclical Laudato Si (which I invite you to read, as not only is it a document of extreme importance for the present, but it has a remarkable writing beauty. You can read by clicking here), that “among the most abandoned and mistreated poor is our oppressed and devastated land” and that we forget “that we ourselves are land (cf. Gen 2:7). Our body is made up of the elements of the planet; its air allows us to breathe, and its water vivifies and restores us”. We are clearly moved by the inability to resist greed, passing to generosity and we are more open to waste than to sharing, which is, in the words of the Supreme Pontiff, "a way of loving, of spending little by little the what I want to what God's world needs".
Ah, let's face it, it's much more comfortable to have a swimming pool at home, to dip your body in on hot days, than to go to the beach, even if it's right there, à babuja (on the edge), as they say here in the Algarve...
In fact, we are facing an identity and training issue, said Professor Ricardo Zózimo, a specialist in sustainability issues at Universidade Nova SBE, in a presentation given by ACEGE.
The lack of skills prevents us from seeing citizenship as a performance and our episteme (world view) is not based on a desire to improve knowledge, but on the desire to respond only to our selfishness and self-indulgence.
And it's not just those who order a new pool to debut this summer; it belongs to all those who are not capable of simple gestures that help us to take better care of this land, an inheritance that we have received and must bequeath: using less plastic; managing energy and water costs; and so many things, which are not difficult to implement in our daily lives, but which would make us greater contributors to improving the condition of the planet.
In other words, Reduce, Recycle, Reuse, a trilogy that should be everyone's concern.
May there be few new pools this year and may our consciences become as clear as water, because we will have a better life.
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