One in five litres of water collected, processed and piped to the consumer simply is lost along the way, never reaching the tap, according to Portugal’s Regulatory Authority for Water and Waste Services (ERSAR).
The consumer is still paying for this leakage despite not receiving the supply with 66% of councils recording losses exceeding 19%. Over 100 councils waste more than 30% of the water and 45 councils lose more than 40%.
There are five municipalities where losses are running at over 50%.
Some water inevitably is lost due to evaporation but when losses from leaking pipes are added, the percentage lost varies wildly from 2% to 70%, both figures are from councils in the Vila Real district.
All in all, about 155 million cubic metres of water supplied to Portugal’s consumers did not reach the taps last year, the equivalent of 426 million litres wasted every day.
Águas de Portugal finalises its restructuring shortly with 19 regional water companies boiled down into just five.
"We will take the opportunity to increase efficiency and to have a more coordinated and cohesive logic in the Águas de Portugal Group," said the company's president, Afonso Lobato Faria.
Far from sorting out leaking networks, which are the councils’ responsibility, Águas de Portugal is introducing ‘tariff harmonisation.’
Currently those councils in inland regions pay up to three times more for water than those councils on the coast. This will be leveled out so each council will pay roughly the same for its water from the five regional water supply bodies.
The problem for the consumer is that local councils still can charge whatever they want to the end user.
Water charges in the Algarve vary wildly with those in Albufeira and Loulé for example, paying many times more than in councils in eastern and western areas.
Águas de Portugal is not interested in what price the consumer pays as long as its new distribution companies get paid by the councils.
This spells zero good news for consumers who had been led to believe that the councils would be under some regulatory instrument to have their water charges harmonised, i.e. fixed rates for consumers across the country. This is not to be.
A recent 32% and 46% (domestic and business) rise in water charges in Olhão, which loses 42% of water supplied to its households, can remain unchallenged under the new structure as inefficient water companies can continue to sit back and print money while their leaking distribution system ensures a high percentage of water supply soaks into the ground.
Olhão's mayor disingenuously attributed the recent hike in prices on 'recommendations from the Regulatory Authority for Water and Waste Services that there should be a better balance between the prices charged in each municipality.'
This sort of nonsensical excuse no doubt will be repeated across the Algarve during the years ahead with any harmonisation being in the upward direction with greedy, inefficient council water companies raising prices to an agreed maximum, rather than reducing prices in line with the lower cost price they are being charged.
Afonso Lobato Faria says ‘it is impossible to see, across the board, if a consumer will pay more or less for their water bill’ thus displaying in one sentence how detached from reality this monopoly supplier has become.
