A ‘technical meeting’ arranged in Albufeira by Águas do Algarve has resulted in praise for the quality of its tap water.
The meeting started with a blind tasting of water by 100 amateurs who ‘assessed the quality of tap water supplied across the region.’ Against what criteria, it is not known.
The PR session, held in the offices of the Association of Hotels and Tourist Region of the Algarve (AHETA) was designed to boost the profile of the Algarve’s water monopoly and may be in response to the falling number of water customers in the region. Many households have been cut off due to non-payment of water bills, and others who have access to well or borehole water have disconnected their supply from the public network due to unaffordability.
Nationally, some 900,000 people have simply stopped being customers, so this sort of water tasting event is to show that tap water is drinkable, and de facto, water from other sources is not safe.
Many households in Portugal do not use tap water because they are unemployed and can’t afford the charges, have been disconnected or because they use a supply from wells or boreholes.
Council water charges rose 8% last year alone across Portugal with some councils clearly profiteering as they have hiked water bills while continuing to withhold payment to the water companies for the supply.
"It was very interesting and the final results presented at the end of the session again validated the quality of water supplied by the company.” The event featured a series of speakers to discuss ‘compliance and certification of water quality' and 'good practice for water safety,’ i.e. avoid boreholes and wells.
There were of course "enlightening results which are fundamental to the understanding of what can and should be done in the matter under discussion," according to the press release. It went on – “Safety, quality, quantity, availability, preservation, efficiency and legislation were the main topics discussed.”
Maybe further ‘technical meetings’ should cover water supply to the poor, why so many customers have been cut off, how to access water when you have been cut off, public wells and why they have been closed, the ludicrous mark-ups foisted on consumers by their local councils (Albufeira: 400%), why the water company allows local councils to run up multi-million euro bills when if customers do not pay they are simply disconnected. Maybe next time then…
