Judicial challenges remain in place
Construction of the desalination plant earmarked for land set back from Praia da Falésia, in Albufeira, should be starting this year, the CEO of Aquapor – one of companies that won the tender for the €108 million project – has told Negocios online.
In an ‘exclusive’ story published yesterday, Aquapor’s António Cunha considered “up until now, there has been no delay” in the process pre-construction.
But neither have the compulsory purchase orders of various parcels of private land been executed. Thus delays could well lie ahead.
For now, Aquapor’s position is that the project removed from the PRR (Plan for Recovery and Resilience) due to time constraints, will start moving ahead this year, with a completion date 21 months later.
As the Resident has explained in previous articles, there is a strong level of local opposition to this plan, and a number of judicial challenges lodged. There are also a few more bureaucratic steps to be taken, including the report on the plant’s ‘environmental conformity’ – one of the principal concern of detractors, who see the constant discharges of brine and chemical sludge as certain to pollute the marine environment.
One question Mr Cunha appears to have left to Águas do Algarve (the project’s promoters) is the price of the water that will be produced. This is a real concern of local authorities, who realise that Águas do Algarve will be looking to recoup a lot of the investment through charges to consumers.
