Government will move forward with a National Water Storage and Management Plan | Water resources

The Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, guaranteed this Tuesday in Beja that the Government is committed to “as quickly as possible” moving forward with a National Water Storage and Management Plan, which he considers a fundamental issue. “More than a problem of lack of water, we have a problem of water resources management”, the answers to which have been “successively postponed”, he said, pledging to urgently present a strategy that “consolidates the various interests”: the human , the valorization of agriculture, tourism and other economic activities. “There should be no taboos. What needs to happen is good management and conciliation of interests,” he said.

Montenegro began its intervention with an indirect message to the previous Government. “This time, my presence means the reconciliation of the Government of the Republic with Ovibeja,” he said. It is recalled that the organization of the event, the Associação de Agricultores do Sul, decided in 2023 not to invite any member of the Government, claiming that it made no sense to invite “those who do not listen to the farmers’ protest”, thus targeting the former Minister of Agriculture .

Once the repairs were made, Montenegro said that the Government is not indifferent to the reality of farmers, remembering that recent years have brought problems that urgently need to be stopped. For the Prime Minister, the recent farmers’ protest revealed that the “indignation was motivated by years of abandonment that ended up putting us in a situation of masochism”, considering that the restrictions imposed on European farmers to preserve the environment and public health are not being placed on products coming from abroad. “We demand restrictive rules for ourselves to safeguard the environment and public health, but we turn a blind eye to agricultural products coming from other geographies that do not respect the principles that are imposed within the community framework” he stressed.

The president of the Southern Farmers Association, Rui Garrido, recalled that water scarcity “leads to the abandonment of fields, the cessation of agricultural activity and the path to desertification”, which is why he argues that it is “urgent to implement a national policy” on water resources.

“We are committed as quickly as we can to considering a National Water Storage and Management Plan”, reinforced Luís Montenegro, highlighting what he considers to be a fundamental issue: “More than a problem of lack of water, we have above all a water resources management problem”, the answers to which have been “successively postponed”.

The Prime Minister committed to urgently presenting the country with a strategy that “consolidates the various interests”, stressing that “there should be no taboos”.

“What there has to be is good management and conciliation of interests”, he said.

The mayor of Beja, Paulo Arsénio, using data from Pordata, highlighted the importance of the new agriculture that is being promoted by Alqueva. “In 2023, Alentejo exported 314 million euros in agricultural products, whereas in 2001, a year before the closure of the Alqueva floodgates, exports from the region stood at 5.3 million euros.

In the municipality of Beja alone, irrigation occupies 35 thousand hectares and the new irrigation blocks under construction could reach 40 thousand hectares. The size of the agricultural space based on the export of olive oil, almonds, corn and wine, brought a new problem: the replacement of communication routes, especially municipal roads that were not designed for the circulation of machines and vehicles with high tonnage.

Its recovery and maintenance represents an increase in costs for the municipality of Beja. On three roads, and over a length of 28 kilometers, the municipality will have to bear a charge of 5.5 million euros, when the spill represents revenue of just 1.6 million euros for the municipality.

There has not been a sufficient response to migratory flows and other recent phenomena, despite representing “extreme pressure” on the municipality, warns Paulo Arsénio, who proposed to the Prime Minister the need to “adjust” the entry of immigrants into Portuguese territory, demanding that companies that hire immigrant labor apply other criteria in their hiring, which prevent the degrading conditions that are currently observed.