Aranjuez, Spain, Sept. 27, 2024 (Lusa) - Portugal and Spain have agreed to set minimum daily flow rates for the River Tagus and to establish flow rates for the River Guadiana for the first time, the ministers for the environment in both countries announced on Friday.

The Portuguese minister, Maria da Graça Carvalho, and the Spanish minister, Teresa Ribera, also announced an agreement to pay Portugal for the water abstracted from the Alqueva reservoir by Spanish farmers, under the same conditions and at the same prices as users on the Portuguese side.

According to Maria da Graça Carvalho, this agreement on the Alqueva reservoir will also allow progress to be made with the Portuguese project to collect water in the Pomarão area, in the district of Beja, to supply the Algarve, which affects international waters.

At today's meeting in Aranjuez, in the Madrid region, the ministers reached agreements and principles on these matters, the concrete and definitive terms of which will continue to be negotiated, with the aim of signing an agreement at the next Iberian summit, scheduled for next October in Portugal.

Shared rivers and water management "will, everything suggests, be one of the main issues at the summit between Portugal and Spain", which will "certainly take place in a region where water is an important issue", said Maria da Graça Carvalho, without giving further details.

In line with her Spanish counterpart, the minister for the environment said that the agreements announced today "always put rivers first, ecosystems, the environmental defence of rivers", making this compatible with the need for water for public consumption and for various economic activities.

With regard to the Tagus, Maria da Graça Carvalho emphasised that for the first time a commitment had been made to have daily flow rates, "something very important for Portugal", without giving any figures.

As for the Guadiana, she insisted that this river will now have "a system of flow rates", the volumes and distribution of which will be finalised in the coming weeks, with the primary objective being "the health of the river and the defence of its sustainability".

In the case of the Guadiana, "the surplus flows will be shared equally between Portugal and Spain," said the Portuguese minister.

Teresa Ribera assured that Spain "understands well" that for Portugal "one of the most sensitive aspects" is the guarantee of minimum reference volumes in river flows.

On the subject of payment for the water abstracted from the Alqueva reservoir by farmers on the Spanish side, Maria da Graça Carvalho said that the €2 million per year she mentioned in August is an estimate and that the agreement is to apply the same rules and tariffs as those defined for users on the Portuguese side.

"It's not possible to pay retrospectively because there has been no accounting, the irrigators are probably no longer the same, over 25 years they will be different. Portugal hasn't invoiced, there's no way. So it's about looking to the future (...) It would be impossible to reconstruct the past, because it wasn't done at the time, it wasn't even asked for," said the minister for the environment, questioned about paying for water already withdrawn from the Alqueva in previous years.

Maria da Graça Carvalho said she preferred to "look to the future", but argued that Portuguese farmers in the Alqueva region "have not been harmed" so far, "they have had access to water and have been able to develop their agriculture".

"From now on we're going to do it differently, it was impossible to track the history and so we've put a stone on the matter and we're going to start again," she added.

Maria da Graça Carvalho and Teresa Ribera held a bilateral meeting today in Aranjuez, at the town's Royal Palace, built on the banks of the Tagus, before opening an event dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the Albufeira Convention, the treaty between the two countries that regulates the management of the Iberian Peninsula's international rivers.

The two ministers considered the Albufeira Convention to be an international example for the way it has guaranteed agreements and permanent dialogue between Portugal and Spain on such a sensitive issue as water.

"It has worked well, but it is always possible to improve and incorporate new threats and demands," said Teresa Ribera, who emphasised the impact of climate change on the Iberian Peninsula, with prolonged droughts and floods.

MP/AYLS // AYLS

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