More than 70 organisations demand measures to save Portugal’s rivers and water

Want to see joined-up thinking from warring politicians

As the country prepares for legislative elections – and politicians are on the nation’s television screens constantly, accusing each other of being incompetent – more than 70 organisations and six movements have thrown down the gauntlet, challenging decision makers to do their jobs: think strategically and (in this case, at least) pull the country back from the abyss.

Publishing a list of 15 demands today – reiterating measures to combat drought, protect rivers and groundwater – the groups stress that “reasoned warnings have been ignored, deliberately and unconsciously, particularly since the 1970s. And so we have reached the situation where we are on the brink of survival in the face of rapid climate change and, in particular, in the face of the degradation of the quantity and quality of surface and groundwater and their ecosystems.”

There is no more time to waste deliberately and/ or unconsciously ignoring warnings: the elections on March 10, say the organisations in a release that has been sent to every political party with a seat in parliament, are the perfect time to get the country’s decision makers to prioritise action on the causes of Portugal’s water problems “as a way of combatting the effects”.

The 15 demands are as follows:

No to transfers between river basins
No to wasting water
No to projects based on an increase in water consumption (desalination plants, dams, etc.)
No to the construction of the Algarve desalination plant
No to the proliferation of dams and weirs
Yes to protecting groundwater
Yes to full and urgent compliance with EU and national legislation (Water Framework Directive, Water Law, etc.) and urgent implementation of the measures set out in the River Basin Plans (PGRH)
Yes to the definition and rigorous implementation of ecological flow regimes
Yes to the implementation of ecological recovery processes
Yes to the effective physical-chemical and biological control of effluents released into water bodies
Yes to reducing the emission limit values for effluents released by wastewater treatment plants and IWTPs
Yes to defining effective policies to regulate the proliferation of monocultures
Yes to the dissemination of freely accessible information online
Yes to a development strategy led by national plans for river restoration, the elimination of transversal barriers, the eradication of invasives and water efficiency
Yes to the development of programmes that massively combat ecological illiteracy

The demands have been signed not only by the 70-plus national and local organisations – which include municipalities, NGOs and associations – but by individual citizens who are part of six movements with representation in the country’s main river basins (AMORA, Mondego Vivo, #MovRioDouro, MUNDA, PAS and proTEJO).

The movements stress these issues must be introduced into the electoral campaign “for a discourse with strategic thinking that represents a viable project of responsible collective and individual action with a sense of intergenerational justice”.

The full document can be consulted here.

The movements (AMORA, Mondego Vivo, #MovRioDouro, MUNDA, PAS and proTEJO, with contacts listed below) are preparing for the “1st National Citizens’ Meeting in defence of rivers and water“, which is expected to take place in the middle of this year at an as yet unspecified location:

NORTH (Porto, Douro and Trás-Os-Montes)

#MovRioDouro

movriodouro@gmail.com

Gustavo Briz (membro fundador) – 912 600 587

CENTRE (Coimbra/Viseu and Mondego)

MUNDA

antonio.minhoto@gmail.com

António Minhoto (porta-voz) – 966 395 014

SOUTH (Lisbon and Ribatejo)

proTEJO – Movimento pelo Tejo

protejo.movimento@gmail.com

Paulo Constantino (porta-voz) – 919 061 330