“The Government guaranteed me half a million euros and the Sotavento Regantes Association, […] together with Águas do Algarve, has already started working on the specifications so that, in the next few days, we can launch the competition for the project of this dam”..

This project, which is accompanied by an environmental impact study, will be “the first step” in the construction of a dam that will provide a “breath” to the problems posed by the lack of water in the western Algarve.

The Association of Beneficiaries of the Sotavento Algarve Irrigation Plan (ABPRSA) recalled, in a statement released a few weeks ago, that in the last 40 years four large dams were built in the Algarve: Beliche, in 1986, Funcho in 1993, Odeleite in 1997 and Odelouca in 2009.

Macário Correia, who since leaving political life has dedicated himself to the production of orange and carob, recalled the strategy foreseen in the Algarve Water Efficiency Plan and in the Water Pact, arguing that “it is necessary to take advantage of the water that rains before it becomes salty.”

The president of the irrigation association of the eastern (eastern) Algarve points to Foupana, Alportel and Ribeira de Monchique as first-rate developments in the coming years, also highlighting an ongoing project to create a desalinisation water supply center in Albufeira.