Lisbon, July 24, 2026 (Lusa) - Portuguese environmental NGO, Quercus, warned on Friday that the location of the new Lisbon airport puts the Iberian Peninsula's largest aquifer and the water supply to the Setúbal region at risk, and emphasised the need for a rigorous environmental assessment.
In a statement, the organisation expressed «deep concern» about the technical report on the new airport in the Lisbon region, published this week, arguing that it should be «analysed with the utmost scientific rigour and subjected to extensive public scrutiny, taking into account the significant environmental, territorial and climatic impacts involved».
The proximity to the aquifer, which is of strategic importance as it ensures the water supply for a large part of the population in the Setúbal region, is one of the aspects that most concerns Quercus regarding the location of the new airport.
Any development that compromises the quality or availability of the aquifer could have «very serious consequences for the region's water security», warns Quercus, highlighting environmental risks such as habitat destruction, increased noise and air emissions, and the effects on the landscape and biodiversity.
In the case of the location in Alcochete, it considers that the proposed solution continues to raise serious environmental concerns, due to the airport's potential impacts on natural features of high ecological importance.
The new airport will entail a profound alteration of the natural topography, soil morphology and the functioning of existing ecosystems, it stresses, adding that the planned diversion of the Ribeira do Vale Cobrão could compromise the ecological balance of the river basin and the operational safety of the airport itself and the future rail link.
Quercus continues to advocate the use of Beja Airport during the transitional period until the new airport is built, and a strategy of replacing short-haul flights with rail links wherever possible.
The decision on the new airport requires a particularly rigorous environmental assessment, a genuinely informed public consultation process and a serious consideration of the ecological, social, economic and climate-related costs associated with the chosen solution, it states.
The environmental organisation Zero has also highlighted the need for the development of the new Lisbon airport and associated infrastructure to follow a technically robust, transparent and participatory environmental assessment process, whilst maintaining strong reservations regarding the environmental viability of expanding the current airport.
VP/AYLS // AYLS
Lusa
