In statements to Lusa news agency, the mayor of Reguengos de Monsaraz, in the district of Évora, Marta Prates (PSD), recalled today that the Management Plan for the Alqueva and Pedrógão Reservoirs (POAAP) “is a document from 2002, that is, it’s 22 years old.”
“It’s the only instrument that exists for the management of this water resource, which is Alqueva. However, 22 years later, things have changed, and the municipalities have realized that Alqueva has many potentials that are not foreseen in the POAAP,” she said.
The current plan, whose revision was even approved through a Council of Ministers resolution in 2006 but did not move forward, is “extremely restrictive in terms of rules” and is “inadequate to reality,” said the mayor.
“All of us [mayors] are fully aware that water resources must be protected, so we’re not questioning that, but there’s an economic potential that is not being properly exploited,” she added.
As she has defended in the past, along with mayors from other municipalities bordering Alqueva, Marta Prates argued that it is necessary to move forward with the revision of the POAAP to respond “to the needs of municipalities, tourism regions, and entrepreneurs.”
“It needs to be revised and studied, each of us needs to say, effectively, what we need in our territory,” she emphasized, noting that “the environmental parameters and guidelines for protecting this water resource” cannot be forgotten, which the mayors “want protected.”
To “take the plan revision out of the drawer,” the municipalities of Reguengos de Monsaraz, Alandroal, Mourão, and Portel (in the district of Évora), Elvas (district of Portalegre), and Moura, Serpa, and Vidigueira (district of Beja) united and, in 2023, met with the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA).
“What’s at stake is conducting a study that demonstrates our needs, so that the revision can then be released and go to the Council of Ministers,” she explained.
However, this study, which “is essentially the revision” of the POAAP, “costs 250,000 euros, and this is what’s holding up the process,” because allegedly there’s no money, she stressed.
Therefore, the eight municipalities in the reservoir area and Alentejo Tourism want to “contribute 100,000 euros to carry out the study” and, on the 6th of this month, they took the proposal to the Secretary of State for the Environment, Emídio Sousa.
“We are willing to pay 100,000 of the 250,000 euros for the study, the revision of the POAAP, in desperation to unblock the process and substituting ourselves for the responsibility of the central State,” she stated.
The mayor argued that “the Government was sensitized” to the issue and it was agreed that there will be a new conversation “very soon” on this topic.
“It seemed to me that this might be the way, and that this time, we might be able to unblock this issue,” said Marta Prates.
One of the points in the plan that the mayors want to see revised is the authorization for recreational and leisure areas. In the case of Reguengos de Monsaraz, for example, “only in three locations can you have restaurants, bars, or tourist animation.”
Another issue is the half-kilometer protection strip from the shore where “you can’t do absolutely anything,” which the municipalities say is excessive.
