Last week’s rain brought almost as much water to the Algarve as was expected for the entire year. The Portuguese Environment Agency is still calculating the values, but everything indicates that the Algarve’s dams have risen from 36 to 43% of capacity.
The March rain brought as much water to the Bravura dam as it had left at the historic minimum recorded in October last year.
2 million and 500 thousand cubic meters raised reserves to 20% of the reservoir’s capacity, a level they have not been at since 2021.
The good news, for irrigators in Lagos and Alvor who haven’t irrigated since then, is that not only do the rivers continue to flow towards the dam, but the beginning of April will bring some more rain.
The scenario is identical from one end of the Algarve to the other and preliminary data indicate that the month accumulated an average of 50 millimeters of precipitation, bringing more than 25 million cubic meters to the dams of a dwindling region and the equivalent of a third of consumption for an entire year, more than double what the future desalination plant will produce from seawater.
Odelouca, to windward, will have already exceeded 40%, Odeleite and Beliche, to leeward, 48. Funcho, in Silves, will have recharged another 5 million cubic meters, reaching 58%.
It was a complete irrigation throughout the south of the country, to the point of leaving the largest artificial lake in Western Europe on the edge.
The level of the Alqueva dam is one meter from the maximum. It is necessary to go back to 2014 to have as much water accumulated there as half of Portugal consumes in a year.
If the plumbing had already been done, it would be in a position to recharge the Santa Clara dam, in Southwest Alentejo, but until then, São Pedro came to help.
The elevation is now 2 and a half meters above what was recorded in the past at this time. 201 million and 500 thousand cubic meters accumulated, 42% of capacity.
A source from the Portuguese Environment Agency says, however, that it is too early to put an end to the hydrological drought, everything will depend on what the rest of April and eventually May brings.
A meeting of the drought monitoring committee is scheduled for next week, in Faro. Some of the consumption restriction measures may be reevaluated.
