In the Algarve, water cuts will be 25% in agriculture and 15% in the urban sector, including tourism, to conserve water supplies and combat drought, the environment minister announced on Wednesday.
At a press conference following a meeting of a commission monitoring the effects of the drought in Faro, Duarte Cordeiro classified the situation in the region as serious and called for a commitment from all sectors to ensure water supplies are met next year.
“If nothing is done to curb consumption, we will reach the end of the year without water for public supply” in the Algarve, said a government official who chaired a meeting with Agriculture and Food Minister Maria do Seu Antunes.
At a meeting of the Standing Committee on Drought Prevention, Monitoring and Mitigation, which lasted almost four hours, it was decided that cuts would be smaller than those originally planned for agriculture, which were estimated at 70%.