The villages of Chaminé and Foral in Algoz are urging Silves to extend its municipal water network
At a time when the Silves community of Foral in Algoz is desperately urging the municipal council to link it to the municipal water network, its neighbouring village of Aldeia de Chaminé has also launched its own campaign making the same demand.
The village, home to between 20 and 30 families, currently gets its water from private boreholes or firefighter tank trucks.
However, “these are not solutions that can be considered adequate in the long-term,” the village’s residents say.
Victor Torcato, who is leading the campaign, says he has spent around €350 in water supplied by the firefighters in the last month alone.
“This is not sustainable,” he told the Resident. “I’ve also heard that authorities are not authorising any new boreholes in our village – not that they would be the solution, as many of the existing boreholes are starting to run dry.”
Some residents are so worried that they have started “refusing to supply those who don’t have a borehole – for fear that their borehole will dry up“.
Torcato also explains that those who use borehole water are “concerned about the quality of the water, bearing in mind that we are surrounded by agricultural fields where pesticides are used, which probably end up contaminating the water in the region.”
The issue is becoming increasingly worrisome in the village, where “a large number of residents do not have direct access to water from their own borehole and are dependent on the services of the fire brigade or third parties, who are not always available to supply cisterns.”
“Access to water via the fire brigade is very costly and when there is a shortage of fire trucks, it is not possible,” the residents explain in their recently-launched petition calling for action from the municipal council.
Making matters even more complicated is the fact that access to the cisterns can be very difficult in some situations (as the photo below supplied by the residents shows).
Firefighters have also told residents that they have “countless requests” to supply water across the municipality and “just one truck available” at the moment, Torcato told us.
Thus linking Aldeia de Chaminé to the municipal water network is considered the most sensible decision to solve the village’s delicate situation.
“As the water network is already installed a very short distance from our village (approximately two kilometres), we believe that this request is not only reasonable, but can also be implemented with little difficulty,” the residents say in their petition.
The residents say they formalised their request in August 2022 and received the following communication from Silves municipal council: “The possibility of extending the supply network in your area of residence is being evaluated, which will have to include a wide range of households, given that any intervention in the network involves a series of large investments, namely reinforcing the capacity of the reservoirs, replacing pipelines, guaranteeing pressure in them, among others. At this stage, we are unable to respond favourably to your request in the short or medium term.”
As readers who read our report on the Foral situation this week may recall, this response is very similar to the answer that the council provided regarding the water crisis in Foral.
“This means that there is no money for it and that it won’t be possible in the near future. When asked at the beginning of 2024 how long the municipal council of Silves considered ‘short or medium term’, we were told two to three years! (…) This is unacceptable,” the petition reads.
“They say there’s no money for this basic human right, but there’s already been money to build a multi-sports centre in Tunes; there’s already money for future sports projects in Algoz; there are also projects to upgrade the Roman Bridge in Silves. These are just a few examples of projects that have been given priority because they bring tourism and money to the municipality. We, the residents of the municipality, are less important and are being forgotten,” the residents lament.
Desperate for a solution, the residents are calling for the council to “urgently reconsider its position” and link the houses in Aldeia de Chaminé to the municipal water network.
