According to data from the National Water Resources Information System (SNIRH) available today, in March, there was an increase in the volume stored in nine river basins and a decrease in three.
Despite the increase seen in the last month, the amount of water retained in the windward basin was far from the average, which is 74.1%. In February this basin was at 12.5% of its capacity and in January it was at 9.4%. At the end of February, the entire Algarve region was in a situation of weak meteorological drought.
March 2024 storages by river basin are higher than the storage averages for the same month (reference period 1990/91 to 2022/23), with the exception of the Ave (69.9%), Mira (40 .3%), Ribeiras do Algarve (Barlavento 20.8%) and Arade (40.9%).
On the last day of March, the Tagus, Cávado and Guadiana basins were those with the highest volume of water, with 95.4%, 93.8% and 91.4%, respectively.
According to the SNIRH, of the 60 monitored reservoirs, 38 had water availability greater than 80% of the total volume at the end of March and four had water availability less than 40%.
