Faro, Portugal, Jan. 6, 2025 (Lusa) - The Algarve regional agricultural federation (Fedagri) in southern Portugal, has suggested the implementation of a per capita allocation for urban water consumption in the region, one of seven demands submitted to the "Water that Unites" working group.
"Similar to what happens in the agricultural sector, where there is an allocation per area, we suggest that consideration be given to using the same rationale for urban consumption, with the implementation of an allocation per inhabitant - as happens in Egypt, for example," the organisation said in a letter sent to the working group, to which Lusa had access.
Macário Correia, president of the Eastern Algarve Irrigation Association and one of the founding members of the federation, which was set up in August last year, told Lusa that this was "a question of justice".
"It doesn't make any sense for the restrictions to be for some and not for others, and it doesn't make any sense for there to be appropriations for agriculture and not for other sectors," he explains.
While in agriculture there are allocations per crop and per unit of area, referenced in the underground water resource utilisation permits or surface water permits, "in urban consumption there are no restrictions of this kind," he adds.
"It's something that's becoming necessary, because there's unregulated urban consumption, which doesn't take into account what efficiency and savings are," stressed Macário Correia, adding that some Algarve councils, "last summer, squandered water in a perfectly incredible way", namely by watering "pavements, tarmac and roundabouts".
The allocation would be defined "according to" the existing population and hotel capacity in each municipality, explained the former mayor of Faro and Tavira.
"A local council has so many inhabitants and so many hotel beds. It should have an allocation defined according to this need for consumption. All you have to do is look at the average consumption of those [municipalities] that have more efficient management and set the price accordingly," he said.
In the letter sent to the ‘Water that Unites’ working group, Fedagri recalls that the World Health Organisation "argues that 110 litres/day is enough to meet a person's basic consumption and hygiene needs".
In Portugal, ‘various sources of information point to an average figure of 190 litres/day per person’, and in the Algarve, according to the APA (Portuguese Environment Agency), "consumption by tourists is over 300 litres/day", the document reads.
The federation argues that Algarve agriculture "has been adapting" to the meteorological drought that the region has been experiencing since 2012 and that it has made investments "that have resulted in a 50% reduction in consumption" of water compared to 2002 figures.
The use of localised irrigation equipment, humidity sensors and meteorological stations, among others, has made the region "the most efficient at national level in the use of production factors, including water", reads the letter.
Among the other demands presented to the working group, Fedagri points out "the existence of fines for local councils that continue to have water losses above what is reasonable", indicating that, according to APA data from the end of 2023, water losses in municipal low networks "represented 30 hm3 [cubic hectometres] of water every year".
Increasing water storage capacity, better management of the Algarve's aquifers, increasing the volume of treated wastewater, raising public awareness and the desalination plant are the other points addressed by the Algarve farmers' federation.
The ‘Water that Unites’ initiative, which is due to be presented in January, aims to define the country's strategy for efficient water management, storage and distribution.
EYP/AYLS // AYLS
Lusa
