The environmental association Zero have warned that the amount of water produced by the desalination plant planned for the Algarve is almost equal to that lost in the supply systems, and does not guarantee the resilience of public supply in the region.Zero and Almargem - Association for the Defense of the Cultural and Environmental Heritage of the Algarve - took a public position on the project and expressed doubts that the new desalination station would make an “effective contribution” to “guaranteeing the resilience of public supply " in the region.
The Algarve Seawater Desalination Station (EDAMA) is expected to be built in Albufeira, with funding from the Recovery and Resilience Program (PRR), with public consultation on the project's Environmental Impact Study (EIA) ending on December 19 .
In a statement, the associations considered that water losses in the Algarve's supply systems are equivalent to what will be produced by EDAMA and expressed “great reservations regarding the real contribution of the project” to ensure, in addition to the resilience of the public supply, an “availability of water for current and future consumption”.
“For these two associations, the documents under public consultation do not properly justify the need for the project”, said Zero and Almargem in their public position, to which the Lusa agency had access.
The documents under consideration in the EIA consultation “leave out” of the analysis the “water needs for public supply, current and future”, and the “characterization of current origins, competing uses and predictable scenarios, taking into account the hierarchy of uses and of the project’s contribution to meeting these needs”, he warned.
Nor are the “impacts that the increase in water supply for the urban sector will have on other uses”, such as irrigated agriculture, as well as those that result “from the increase in the price of water, whether for consumers or for the entities managing supply services that operate in the region”, he added.
Zero and Almargem asked for an in-depth assessment of the project's evaluation process, arguing that there are 19 entities in the Algarve responsible for water supply – such as municipalities and municipal companies or service concessionaires – with “real losses in the distribution networks” exceeding 13 million cubic meters (13 cubic hectometers), while the planned desalinated water supply will be, “on average, 12.5 cubic hectometers per year”.
“This will jeopardize the fulfillment of the objective of strengthening the water resilience of the Algarve’s supply system and guaranteeing the current and future water needs of the public supply if there is no effective effort to increase the efficiency of the supply networks”, sustained.
The associations also argued that, in addition to the desalination plant, the Algarve Regional Water Efficiency Plan (PREHA) foresees around 44 million euros of investment for the rehabilitation of 125 kilometers of water supply network in decline, “contributing to a reduction in two cubic hectometers in the demand for water in natural systems”, but this only represents “just over 15% of the current real losses of the system”.
They also criticized the lack of analysis of the costs that the production of desalinated water will have on the tariffs charged to final consumers and “the economic-financial balance of the entities managing supply services”, which can be “10 times higher than that of traditionally produced water” and “sharply increase tariffs”.
Zero and Almargem also expressed reservations regarding the mitigation of climate change, because the photovoltaic solar energy system planned to reduce the impact of the desalination plant “only covers 14% of the energy needed, with the remainder of the energy coming from the public grid”, with the consequent increase in greenhouse gases.
Source Lusa
