Vila Nova da Barquinha, Portugal, Sept. 17, 2026 (Lusa) - A comprehensive plan for the River Tagus, which will include an environmental assessment from Spain to the river mouth, is set to go ahead «very shortly», announced the chair of AdP AQUA, Macário Correia.
«We will be launching this comprehensive plan for the Tagus very shortly, which obviously requires a full environmental assessment,» said Macário Correia, adding that the work will need to cover the river «from the mouth right up to Spain».
The chair of the body responsible for managing, implementing and coordinating the «Água Que Une» Strategy made the announcement during a webinar organised on Wednesday by #MovRioDouro, Plataforma Água Sustentável (PAS) and proTEJO, which also featured Sara Correia, a water resources specialist from the environmental organisation ZERO.
Macário Correia said the future plan should consider, among other matters, water supply to the South Bank, saline intrusion in the estuary area, issues concerning Alvito and Ocreza and management of the Upper Tagus, including storage for flood control, energy production and agriculture.
Regarding the possibility of new infrastructure to address saltwater intrusion in the Conchoso area of Azambuja, he said the issue should be studied and noted that «a decision is still pending».
The announcement came after Paulo Constantino, spokesperson for proTEJO, had called for a cumulative environmental assessment of the anticipated pressures on the catchment, including the water supply to the South Bank from Castelo de Bode, the Constância-Praia do Ribatejo weir, water transfers and the Alvito dam.
In subsequent comments to Lusa, Constantino said some infrastructure projects envisaged in the «Água Que Une» Strategy might, in phases, result in solutions similar to those in the so-called Tejo Project.
According to the spokesperson for the proTEJO movement, that private project envisaged an investment of around €1.35 billion and the construction of four weirs and two dams between Abrantes and Lisbon.
«The first could well be Constância-Praia do Ribatejo,» he said, acknowledging that any infrastructure designed to tackle saltwater intrusion at Conchoso could serve as the downstream end of that series.
«If they build the first and the last, they'll just have to build the others in between,» said Constantino, emphasising that the movement raised this concern, not AdP AQUA.
During the session, the chairman of AdP AQUA indicated that the current status of the Constância–Praia do Ribatejo weir would be addressed in the future comprehensive plan for the Tagus.
In the discussion on the strategy's priorities, Sara Correia highlighted the opportunity to rebalance investment, noting that 65% of investment was concentrated on the ‘resilience' pillar, which includes dams, interconnections and desalination, compared with 31% allocated to efficiency and 4% to monitoring, digitalisation and regulation.
The ZERO representative said the hierarchy initially defined—which prioritised water efficiency, loss reduction and reuse, followed only then by new water sources and infrastructure — had been «turned slightly on its head» in the distribution of investment.
Macário Correia countered that dams are the lowest formal priority in the «Água Que Une» programme, pointing out that 14 are planned out of 294 measures and that the priority must also include reducing wastage and reusing water.
Constantino also argued that investment should prioritise water use efficiency, maintaining that a significant reduction in losses in agriculture and urban networks would make it possible «to do the same as we do today with half the water we use».
The proTEJO spokesperson also called for «more dialogue, more discussion, more public information» and greater clarity regarding the projects being taken forward, their timetables and a joint assessment of their impacts on the river basin.
This was the third webinar in the series, following discussions on flooding and nature restoration.
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