Crato, Portalegre, Portugal, Oct. 3, 2025 (Lusa) - The 15 mayors in the region of Portalegre, in eastern Portugal, on Friday condemned the action taken by environmental associations that filed an injunction last week to halt the construction of the Pisão Dam in the municipality of Crato, in that region.

In a statement signed by the 15 mayors and sent to the Lusa news agency by the Intermunicipal Council of the Alto Alentejo Intermunicipal Community (CIMAA), the entity responsible for carrying out the work, the mayors stated that they condemned the action, considering it to be an "environmentalist blockade".

"The Crato Multi-Purpose Hydraulic Development Project’ - Pisão Dam, the most ambitious project in Alto Alentejo in decades, is forced to halt its work after an injunction filed by environmental associations with the Administrative and Tax Court of Castelo Branco, which decrees the annulment of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)," the statement reads.

A group of environmental associations filed an injunction to halt work on the Pisão Dam, GEOTA executive secretary Hélder Careto told the Lusa news agency today.

"The purpose of the injunction is, obviously, to stop the works, because at this point there is already a large area of destruction," warned the head of the Group for the Study of Land Use and the Environment (GEOTA), one of the environmental associations involved in the injunction.

Hélder Careto stressed that, after the case was filed and the parties were notified by the court, the "works did not stop, they continued," so environmentalists are developing other legal proceedings with justice to denounce this situation.

"At the moment, the matter is pending, and we are awaiting the reasoned decisions of the various entities cited in the proceedings and also the judge's decision," he said.

The work, he argued, "was supposed to be completely halted, because the judge ordered the work to stop, and that did not happen."

The injunction was filed by the environmental associations GEOTA, Quercus, LPN and Zero, while the Intermunicipal Council of the Alto Alentejo Intermunicipal Community (CIMAA) and the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA), among other entities, have already been notified.

In a statement sent to Lusa, CIMAA said it would respond to this action at its headquarters and expressed its "deep conviction" that it would overcome this new obstacle to the development of Alto Alentejo.

CIMAA also assured that, "with greater or lesser opposition", the Pisão Dam project "will be implemented" because it has the commitment of the mayors of the 15 districts in the region of Portalegre, the Government and the local population.

CIMAA recalled that this is a "crucial infrastructure" for the development of Alto Alentejo and that it aims to "improve the living conditions" of the population, alongside "total respect" for the environment.

"Scrutiny is natural in such a complex and transformative investment as this, and these legal obstacles, perpetuated by environmental associations, have already occurred in the past - and we are sure they will continue to occur - as long as it is possible to challenge the project in court," it said.

CIMAA and its associates also reaffirmed "total transparency" in the conduct of the process and in "compliance with all environmental requirements", "scrupulously respecting" the rules and legislation in force.

Therefore, they reaffirmed that they remain "totally convinced of the continuity" of the construction of the Pisão Dam: "We also reinforce the confidence we have in all the work carried out by the Portuguese Environment Agency and the ministry for the environment and energy" and by "the other entities involved in the process."

The Pisão Dam is the "largest ever" public investment undertaken by an intermunicipal community, with a budget of €222 million, secured by the state budget and other available sources of funding, it recalled.

"Its objectives are to ensure the supply of drinking water, combat desertification in the region, diversify agriculture and contribute to the reconfiguration of energy production" in that area of Alentejo, argued CIMAA.

And the project, it pointed out, "should also be an agent for attracting inhabitants to a demographically disadvantaged area of the country, while maintaining an efficient water resource management system".

HYT/AYLS // AYLS

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