The works are expected to begin in the first half of 2025 after the public tender for the project was closed last week, which foresees an initial investment of 11.2 million euros until 2026. “It is a project worth 11 million and 200 thousand euros, plus VAT, and is supported by the RRP [Recovery and Resilience Plan] funds. Therefore, it is a work that will begin, […] still in the first half of the year, and that will be completed during the year 2026”, António Marreiros, president of the Alvor Irrigators and Beneficiaries Association (ARBA), told Lusa.

The Bravura dam, the second in Portugal with the lowest levels of capacity by percentage, had at the beginning of this week only 17% of its total capacity, that is, 5,819 of the 34,825 cubic decameters of maximum limit, according to the weekly bulletin of the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) on the water availability of Portuguese dams.

Also known as the Odiáxere Dam, the structure is located in Lagos, in the Faro district, and was designed in 1955 and began operating in 1958. The project to modernise the Alvor irrigation perimeter will have two phases, the first of which will begin after choosing the company that will build a pumping station and a filtering station, with a reservoir with a capacity to store water for two days, as well as a section of the future main pipeline.

This first phase will be completed in 2026 and in the same year, a second phase will begin, the financing amount of which has not yet been defined, which foresees the pressurization of the entire irrigated perimeter.

“Yes, we are always dependent on rain, but water management and water economics will be totally different. With the modernized perimeter, with pressuriSation, we will eliminate leaks and water losses by more than 90%”, assured Antonio Marreiros.

According to the person in charge, in 2024, it was possible to supply some water to farmers, but not every day: “It was in phases, every other week, but we had to keep the canal full, otherwise we would have been losing more water”.

“In order to have some water available for farmers, we need to reach eight [thousand cubic decameters]. We are still a little short, according to our contingency plan, so that water can be supplied to farmers,” he stressed.

Antonio Marreiros recalled that, due to the drought situation, in the last two years the water in the dam has been at very low levels and has only been used for public supply: “Our farmers spent two years without water to grow crops, both seasonal and permanent crops”.

The dam was initially built for agricultural purposes, but now it also serves public consumption needs, which includes the tourism sector, where large hotel villages and golf courses are located.

“The fact is that consumption has doubled in the last 30 years. The population of the Algarve was perhaps less than 400 thousand and I think at the moment it is around 600, 700 thousand. And another situation, in the past, there were less than 100 tourist enterprises, and now [...] there are thousands”, warned the farmer.

The Algarve is experiencing a drought, but currently, after the rains that fell last November, it now has water in its six dams that can supply all types of consumers for more than a year.