In a statement, the entity said that the technical opinion of the evaluation committee convened for this purpose was drawn up after a 30-day public consultation period for the preliminary study of a project intended to capture water in Pomarão, a village in the municipality of Mértola, district of Beja.

As part of the Algarve Regional Water Efficiency Plan budgeted at around 61.5 million euros, with funding from the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP), the project involves the construction of an underground pipeline of around 40 kilometres, until the water is returned to the Odeleite reservoir, in the municipality of Castro Marim, Faro district.

The APA claims that the initiative aims to ensure “an effective ecological flow regime” and increase the available capacity of the reservoir in question, in a joint effort between Portugal and Spain, and states that the licensing and implementation of the project can only occur “after the issuance of the environmental compliance decision for the execution project”.

The Minister of Environment and Energy, Maria da Graça Carvalho, announced on 6 August that Portugal and Spain will sign a final agreement regarding water collection in Pomarão, on the Portuguese-Spanish border, on 26 September in Madrid.

On July 9, the Intermunicipal Community of Baixo Alentejo (CIMBAL), which includes 13 of the 14 municipalities in the district of Beja, with Odemira being the exception, approved a statement against water capture and demanded that the project also serve the local population. CIMBAL stated at the time that the municipality of Mértola is “one of the territories most susceptible to desertification” and is struggling “with water scarcity and high water stress, aggravated by longer periods of drought”.

The environmental associations Zero and Plataforma Água Sustentável (PAS) also criticised the project. As part of the water capture initiative, at the end of July, the Ministry of Environment and Energy requested the APA to draw up a plan to guarantee a regular public supply of drinking water to the parish of Espírito Santo, where the town of Pomarão is located.