Speaking to journalists in Mértola, in the district of Beja, the minister said that the rainy winter that occurred in Portugal was "an episode" and that, therefore, everyone in the country must "be prepared for long periods without rain".

"All the data we have from the last eight years shows that the amount of rain in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, namely Andalusia, Algarve and Alentejo, has been decreasing and that is what we have to be prepared for in the future," stressed the minister.

Maria da Graça Carvalho was speaking to journalists at the end of a bilateral meeting of the Plenary Council of EuroAAA - Euroregion Alentejo - Algarve - Andalusia, held in Mértola.

The minister noted that, although the Alentejo and Algarve regions currently have water available for "two years", it is not the time to 'disconnect' from this problem of water supply and drought.

We need to "continue to speed up the works we have underway" to "reduce water losses", namely the intake of water from Pomarão to the Algarve, the Albufeira desalination plant and the water connection between the western and eastern Algarve.

The EuroAAA meeting, which was also attended by the President of the Junta de Andalusia, Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla, took place at the Mértola Biological Station.

The meeting aimed to "deepen dialogue in strategic areas such as water resource management, biodiversity and energy, focusing on common challenges and opportunities for collaboration to promote sustainable development in the southern region of the Iberian Peninsula".

Regarding the new Lower Guadiana Strategy, the Minister of Environment and Energy said that it is the result of cooperation between the three regions of EuroAAA, in which the Guadiana is a link that unites them and has several dimensions.

"There is the environmental dimension, of biodiversity, of preserving the river, of naturalizing the river banks, but there is also the transportation aspect, making this river more navigable [and] the need to carry out some works in relation to [its] dredging," she said.

The meeting also allowed the analysis of the Euroregion's 2023/2024 activity report and the celebration of the transfer of the EuroAAA presidency to the Algarve, until 2027.

The presidency of this working community rotates, for two-year periods and for each of the regions.

Related article: