The awarded contract, which represents an investment of around 108 million euros, is integrated into the Algarve Regional Water Efficiency Plan, framed by the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR).

The project to build a desalination plant in the municipality of Albufeira, in the district of Faro, is one of the response measures to the drought affecting the southernmost region of mainland Portugal as part of a package of measures launched by the previous Government.

The infrastructure will have an initial capacity of 16 million cubic meters (m3), but the company is planning to have the capacity to treat up to three times that volume, that is, up to 24 million m3 of water.

The Algarve region has suffered, over the last few years, cycles of prolonged drought associated with a situation of water scarcity already considered structural, resulting in a decrease in the volumes of water stored in the various available sources.

The Portuguese-Spanish consortium of companies that will build the desalination plant will also be responsible for “exploiting the project for a period of three years” after the work is completed, according to Águas do Algarve.

Luís Montenegro is accompanied at the contract signing ceremony by Maria da Graça Carvalho, Minister of Environment and Energy, and by Manuel Castro Almeida, Deputy Minister and Territorial Cohesion.

Águas do Algarve is the public company responsible for water supply in the region and is responsible for managing infrastructure such as dams or Waste Water Treatment Plants (WWTP).