The future Algarve desalination plant should be built at the end of 2026 or beginning of 2027, after the work was awarded to a Portuguese-Spanish consortium of companies, announced Águas do Algarve.
“Águas do Algarve informs of the award of the public tender for the design, construction and operation of the Desalination System in the Algarve Region, with the Complementary Group of Companies – ACE”, reads a statement from the public company.
According to Lusa, a source from Águas do Algarve, the company responsible for water supply in the region, which is responsible for managing infrastructure such as dams or Waste Water Treatment Stations (WWTP), the completion of the work is scheduled for the end 2026 or early 2027.
The so-called Complementary Group of Companies (ACE) is formed by the Portuguese companies Luságua – Serviços Ambientais, Aquapor – Serviços and the Spanish GS Inima Environment.
The award contract represents an investment of around 108 million euros, which is integrated into the Algarve Regional Water Efficiency Plan, framed by the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), according to the note.
The commitment foresees that this consortium will fulfill the defined objectives, namely “the design, construction and operation of the desalination system in the Algarve region”, which will be installed in Albufeira, in the district of Faro.
The consortium will also be responsible for “operating the project for a period of three years” after the work is completed.
Águas do Algarve states that the construction of the desalination plant comes in a context in which it is expected, “with growing evidence, that there will be a decrease in annual rainfall and an increase in the asymmetry of the intra-annual precipitation regime, more or less pronounced in function of the climate scenarios considered, especially pronounced in the Mediterranean regions”.
According to the statement, the sole objective of the project is based on the need for an integrated solution that guarantees, in a sustainable manner, the public water supply in the Algarve region, a need that has long been identified.
The main reason for implementing this project is, according to Águas do Algarve, the need to create an alternative capable of guaranteeing the resilience of public supply to the region’s population, even in periods of prolonged drought.
The construction of a desalination plant in the municipality of Albufeira is one of the measures to respond to the drought affecting the southern region of Portugal.
The infrastructure will have an initial capacity of 16 million cubic meters (m3), but the company is designing it so that it has the capacity to treat up to three times more than this 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.
A platform that groups environmentalist associations began legal proceedings with the Public Prosecutor’s Office last July, requesting the invalidation of the Environmental Impact Declaration in favor of the construction of a desalination plant in the Algarve.
