Algarve to invest €305 million in infrastructure

At a hearing in front of the parliamentary Committee on Environment and Energy, Helena Lucas, who is in charge of the state-owned company Águas do Algarve, stated that applications for a large part of the funds needed have already been filed under the "Sustentável 2030" (Sustainable 2030) programme, which is co-financed by the Cohesion Fund.

The project for the Pomarão intake in the town of Mértola—intended for the purpose of transporting water to the Odeleite reservoir and providing an average annual capacity of 16 cubic hectometres—is provided for at €188.7 million, of which €172.9 million has been requested from Europe.

The public tender for this project has now ended, and the government is presently examining seven competing bids.

At the same time, the construction of the Albufeira desalination plant will cost €116.9 million (€110.3 million of which has already been approved); operations are still planned to start in the first quarter of 2029, when the plant will also produce 16 cubic hectometres of water each year to satisfy the region's public water requirements.

Water efficiency

José Apolinário, who is President of the Algarve Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR), pointed out that the 16 municipalities in the region are carrying out water efficiency projects amounting to €120 million with the aim of bringing urban network losses down to 15% by the end of the decade, in addition to the €106 million which has already been spent as part of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR).

In the tourism accommodation sector, approximately 130 establishments have taken on the Save Water label, leading to a 12% reduction in water consumption in the participating hotels—a certification model which Turismo de Portugal intends to extend to other regions.