“The public consultation on the RECAPE [Environmental Compliance Report of the Execution Project] for the desalination plant in the Algarve violates the right to citizen participation, and the court suspended the participation period granted by official entities,” stated the Sustainable Water Platform (PAS) in a statement.

According to the platform, RECAPE is not available for participation on the Participa Portal because, on Tuesday, the Loulé Administrative Court “ordered the suspension of the public consultation period that was underway, as it does not comply with national law.”

PAS considers that the way this consultation is being conducted represents a "profound disrespect for participatory democracy, posing significant obstacles to access to information and the possibility of informed analysis and intervention by citizens and civil society."

The environmentalists provide several examples that demonstrate that the documentation made available for consultation is "disorganized and incompatible with the basic principles of transparency required by law," the note reads.

According to PAS, more than 400 documents were made available for analysis in an extremely short period of just 14 business days (July 3rd to 23rd), and some documents have parts written in different languages (Portuguese, Spanish, and English).

The environmentalists also claim that the documents are presented haphazardly and that the titles of the documents do not clearly identify their content, with hundreds of documents having identical titles.

PAS decided to take the case to European bodies, such as the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the Aarhus Convention Committee, as they consider it a serious violation of the principles of transparency, participation, and environmental justice.

The construction of a desalination plant in the Algarve municipality of Albufeira, with a base cost of 90 million euros, is one of the measures in response to the drought affecting southern Portugal. The facility is expected to have an initial capacity of 16 cubic hectometres to convert seawater into potable water.

According to Águas do Algarve, the company responsible for the region's water supply and the management of infrastructure such as dams and wastewater treatment plants (WWTP), the project is scheduled for completion by the end of 2026.

The PAS is made up of 13 non-governmental organizations, namely A Rocha Portugal, Água é Vida, AlBio – Algarve Agroecological Association, Almargem – Association for the Defence of the Algarve's Cultural and Environmental Heritage, CIVIS – Association for the Deepening of Citizenship, and Ecotopia – Environmental and Sustainable Development Association.

Also, members of the platform are FALA – Alentejo Coastal Environment Forum, Faro 1540 – Association for the Defence and Promotion of the Environmental and Cultural Heritage of Faro, Glocal Faro, the League for the Protection of Nature (LPN), the Association for the Barrocal Algarvio (Probaal), Quercus – National Association for Nature Conservation, the REGAR group, and ZERO – Sustainable Earth System Association.

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