A university study claims that the Alqueva reservoir “has transformed agriculture and the economy of the Alentejo”, yet the region continues to experience demographic change, and “a significant proportion of the wealth generated circulates beyond the region”.
These are some of the conclusions of a study produced by Carlos Gonçalves, of the University of Évora (UÉvora), and Jorge Gonçalves, of the Instituto Superior Técnico at the University of Lisbon, published this year in the scientific journal Sustainability.
In a statement sent to Lusa news agency, UÉvora said that the study concludes that the Alqueva Multi-purpose Project (EFMA) “has yet to fully address all the problems that justified” its creation.
“The EFMA was created with great ambition: to help develop southern Portugal. It promised to modernise agriculture, retain the population, create jobs and reduce inequalities between regions,” emphasised Carlos Gonçalves, a researcher at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Social Sciences at UÉvora, quoted in the press release.
According to the Alentejo-based academic institution, the study “analyses the extent to which these promises have been fulfilled”, drawing on documentary analysis, census data, economic and social indicators, and an assessment of the project’s impacts on the region.
“The results reveal a nuanced reality. Alqueva has increased the area under irrigation, improved the security of the water supply, boosted agricultural exports, contributed to renewable energy production and raised the region’s profile as a tourist destination.”
However, “the economic and productive gains have not been accompanied by an equivalent transformation in social and demographic conditions”, meaning that “many of the problems the project promised to resolve remain”.
“The population is still declining, the ageing population remains high, many migrant agricultural workers live in precarious conditions, land is increasingly concentrated in large farms, much of the wealth generated does not remain in the region, and pressures on the environment have increased,” explains Carlos Gonçalves, pointing out that “a major public works project may be technically successful”, yet it can still strive to deliver “fair and balanced development for the region”.
“In the case of Alqueva, the benefits were significant, and there is still potential for them to reach the local population to a greater extent,” he argues.
According to the UÉ, this study also analysed how the benefits of agricultural transformation are distributed and how much of the wealth produced remains within the region (or not).
“The expansion of irrigation and the modernisation of agriculture can increase productivity and strengthen export capacity, but do not, in themselves, say that the gains will translate into better living conditions for local communities.”
The study argues that “the concentration of land ownership, the influence of major investors and job insecurity raise questions about the distribution of opportunities and the benefits generated.
“The challenge lies not only in the infrastructure itself. It also lies in the way development has been organised,” warns Gonçalves.
In his view “better mechanisms for the redistribution of wealth, greater coordination between institutions, more local participation and policies that ensure a more significant share of the value created remains in the region are needed.”
“With these conditions in place, the benefits can reach large investors and external interests as well as local communities,” he stresses. But as things stand at the moment, communities are missing out.
Sources: LUSA