Águas do Alto Alentejo has become a pioneer in Portugal in exploring the concept “Volumetric Benefits of Water”, with plans to reduce network losses by 9.6 million cubic meters in eight years, it was announced today.
In a press release, the intermunicipal company Águas do Alto Alentejo (AAA) explained that the project, developed with INDAQUA, which manages water supply systems for human consumption and wastewater treatment, “opens the way to the generation of water credits” in the future.
“The water that would otherwise be lost now has measurable value and, in the future, could be traded,” emphasized AAA, responsible for managing the intermunicipal water supply and wastewater system for ten municipalities in the Portalegre district.
With this bet, AAA announced that it had become “the first entity in Portugal to explore and operationalize the concept of ‘Volumetric Benefits of Water’ and to prepare the generation of water credits from the reduction of non-billed water.”
That concept, he explained, aims for each cubic meter of water saved relative to a reference scenario to be “quantified according to international methodologies” and to be able to “convert into an asset,” the water credit.
The project sheet can be consulted on the aquapositive.com platform, in the projects section, and it gathers objectives, measures, impacts, and the link to 10 Sustainable Development Goals, the company said, noting that “the estimated price is 0.78 euros per cubic meter (m3).”
The general director of AAA, Rui Choças, quoted in the release, stressed that, in a region “marked by water scarcity,” the added value of this project lies in “transforming the efficiency of the water system into a measurable water benefit.”
According to the official, reducing non-billed water allows “avoiding physical and financial waste” in the networks, but also to “scientifically quantify” each cubic meter that the company can retain and return to the region’s river basins.
The intermunicipal company also noted that the performance contract, lasting eight years, covers the distribution network of its 10 associated municipalities, namely Alter do Chão, Arronches, Castelo de Vide, Crato, Fronteira, Gavião, Marvão, Nisa, Ponte de Sor and Sousel, “with more than 1,104 kilometres.”
The goal is to “reduce water losses by 9.6 million m3,” i.e., to save “1.2 million m3 of water per year,” he stated, emphasizing that “it is up to INDAQUA to execute the program and meet the agreed indicators.”
The intervention, he noted, “includes network diagnosis and water balance, leak detection and repair, zoning, pressure management, rehabilitation of critical infrastructures and modernization of metering and monitoring.”
Results will be verified annually against the scenario prior to the contract, which “could be extended to 10 to 15 years,” he added.
