PAS says “numerous aspects of the project have not been presented and analysed”
Plataforma Água Sustentável (Sustainable Water Platform), or PAS, has contested the issuing of a conditionally favourable Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the construction of a desalination plant in the Algarve.
The thumbs up was granted to the project last week by the Portuguese Environmental Agency (APA), paving the way for the construction of the desalination plant which some view as essential and others, such as PAS, vehemently oppose.
“PAS considers that the Environmental Impact Statement issued on April 3, 2024 (…) does not meet the requirements that would allow it to be classified as an EIS,” says the platform, which brings together several environmental associations from the southern region of the country.
The environmentalists guarantee their position is “objectively based” on the fact that “numerous aspects of the project have not been presented and analysed, as well as essential information of central importance, and consequently various impacts of significant value have not been assessed”.
On April 3, APA issued a favourable EIS for the seawater desalination plant project to be installed in Albufeira, in the district of Faro, although with the requirement of compliance with a number of conditions.
According to APA, “although the impacts are not considered to be significant, a set of requirements was incorporated into the decision aimed at safeguarding these possible impacts, as well as the development of any additional minimisation measures.”
Given that the environmental impact assessment procedure took place at the preliminary study stage, the agency adds that “a second stage of assessment will take place at the execution stage of the project, with a view to verifying the environmental compliance of the execution project with the EIS” issued.
For PAS, this is “unacceptable”. Any verification of environmental compliance “should have been analysed within the scope of the EIS,” says PAS, adding that this should not be left for the RECAPE (Execution Project Environmental Compliance Report) to clarify.
The environmentalists add that there is an “extensive list of conditions” expressed in the EIS, relating to “various factors in the fields of geomorphology, water, landscape, marine life, fishing, noise pollution and effluent rejection, among others, which necessarily have to be subject to environmental assessment earlier in the process, and not just in the RECAPE.”
PAS is a movement created in 2020 which brings together the following associations and NGOs: Rocha Portugal, Almargem – Associação de Defesa do Património Cultural e Ambiental do Algarve, CIVIS – Associação para o Aprofundamento da Cidadania, Faro 1540 – Associação de Defesa e Promoção do Património Ambiental e Cultural de Faro, Glocal Faro, Quercus – Núcleo Regional do Algarve and Regenerarte – Associação de Proteção e Regeneração dos Ecossistemas.
