The environmentalist association Zero warned yesterday about the deterioration of the state of rivers and aquifers on the mainland territory and considered that the measures that were in public consultation do not have guarantees of funding and execution.
“The documents that will guide the 4th cycle of the River Basin Management Plans (PGRH), for the period 2028-2033, confirm that the state of the water bodies has regressed across planning cycles and that the environmental objectives defined for the 3rd cycle will not be met,” the association began, in a statement about the Significant Water Management Issues (QSiGA), whose public consultation, promoted by the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA), ended on September 20.
Among the causes pointed to for the non-compliances are insufficient investment, the measures’ overly generic nature, the lack of commitment from the different sectors and the absence of clear governance mechanisms, it highlighted.
For Zero, “recognizing the non-compliance is not sufficient,” considering that the documents “do not yet respond to the central challenge” which is “to guarantee that the next cycle does not repeat the same non-compliances.”
According to the association, the data point to a financial execution of about 12% in 2022 and 2023, with 315 measures postponed and only 58 records of measures executed.
In this sense, the association argued that the 4th cycle should rest on “measures with measurable objectives, deadlines, secured funding and effective monitoring.”
