Simple, like water

The issue is a worrying one. “It’s estimated that in the future, two-thirds of humanity will not have clean drinking water”, said Francisco Ferreira, university professor and vice-president of «Quercus». According to environmentalists, in Portugal “we are not using water properly – because we waste too much”, he explained.

A consideration confirmed by Maria do Céu Almeida, of the LNEC («Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil » – National Laboratory of Civil engineering), who underlined the difficulty in objectively studying the use of water in this country. The difficulty arises due to there being various water distributors – all of which use different strategies for billing, and running, their businesses.

All that’s known – according to general data from 1999 – is that 43 per cent of urban water in Portugal is used for domestic purposes. The other large chunk – 40 per cent – is “lost” through leakages in the drainage system. Nine per cent goes towards commercial use – while six per cent of water used in Portuguese towns and cities goes on “public use”.

It’s also estimated that in a normal house, toilet flushing “consumes” 28 to 31 per cent of total water use. The washing machine takes up another 32 to 37 per cent, while 16 per cent is consumed from the taps. These figures come again from the LNEC.

Meantime, there is a National Programme for the Efficient Use of Water. It was drawn up in 2001, and officially approved in 2005. Its objective is to rationalise the use of water by 2015 – but due to bureaucratic issues, it is at a standstill.

Therefore, it’s up to each and every citizen to take the initiative. How? A practical example is given by the experimental project «ecofamílias», which involved 10 volunteer families from the Algarve. It began in 2007, and by the end of the year, the families had achieved a water-use saving of about 48 per cent.

It was extremely useful to see how these families use water, and how much potential saving could be achieved. It was also useful to work out how we can change people’s patterns of behaviour with regard to water, and implement strategies”, Francisco Ferreira elaborated.

«Quercus» now hopes to continue this project in other areas of the country – and monitor, at the same time, the use of electricity in the home and families’ mobility habits.

“Water continues to be very cheap – and this leads to wastage. The municipalities should sort out their leaks – but it’s also fundamental for everyone to change their showerhead for one that is more “efficient”. It makes all the difference”, Ferreira continued.

In the «ecofamílias» project, savings were possible thanks to the adoption of new habits – as well as new equipment. For example, “economising showerheads” which emit between 6.0 and 7.6 litres per minute – without any loss of comfort – instead of the conventional 12 – 15 litres per minute.

Armando da Silva Afonso, from the National Association for the Quality of Household Installations, underlined the measures undertaken to save water.

For example, his not-for-profit association has studied and certified around 70 to 80 per cent of all toilet-flushing systems that exist on the national market in order to help citizens choose the most ecological solutions.

At the same time, the seminar also gave a panoramic overview of water in the region. Engª Sandra Dias presented an “analysis of public water consumption in the Algarve”.

Currently, the region benefits from a modern distribution network called SMAAA (Sistema Multimunicipal Abastecimento de Água) which supplies 15 municipalities with their water. The distribution is handled by «Águas do Algarve, S.A.»

Monchique is still not supplied by this network – but is expected to be piped into the system by the beginning of 2010.

Right now, the system serves a population that varies between 3.770 to 59.160 inhabitants per borough. Seasonality and tourism heavily influence the demographics of the region. It’s estimated that the total population supplied with water in the low season is 400.000 – rising to 1.500.000 during the summer time peak period.

The system has two control/ command centres and four water treatment plants (in Alcantarilha, Tavira, Fontainhas and Beliche). Water quality is constantly monitored along 250 points throughout the system. Throughout the year, technicians perform around 125.000 analyses, and take more than 14.000 water samples.

In terms of dimension, the system covers 450 kilometres of water conduits, 16 reservoir tanks (taking 63.305 cubic metres), and 63 delivery points (the name given to the infrastructure that delivers clean drinking water to the municipalities’ reservoir tanks).

Just to give you an idea, the system moved 69.217 million cubic metres during 2007, and 68.356 million cubic metres in 2008. This year, the average daily discharge rounded out at about 187.277 cubic metres per day.

And if we look at the most recent data, referring to 2008, it’s possible to see very different types of consumption among the 15 Algarve boroughs.

The largest consumer is the borough of Loulé. Sandra Dias justified this on the basis of its geographical size. Add to this the existence of several golf courses, which put it at the top of the list – consuming 19 per cent of the system’s water per day. Next comes Albufeira, consuming 17 per cent of the water per day in 2008 – while the borough of Alcoutim takes a lot less: just 0.2 per cent per day.

Up until now, the system has involved an investment of 240.3 million euros. Roughly another 68.9 million euros are to be spent shortly on improvements and other works.