proTEJO today submitted to the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) its submissions for the upcoming Tejo basin plan, requesting the precautionary suspension of new dams, reservoirs and water transfers until the joint impact of these infrastructures has been evaluated.
“It is not possible to plan how to achieve good status for water bodies by blindly repeating solutions that are an important part of the problem,” states the Movimento pelo Tejo – proTEJO in the document submitted for public consultation.
Based in Vila Nova da Barquinha, in the district of Santarém, the movement asks that new infrastructures be evaluated in light of issues deemed significant for water management, namely ecological flows, river connectivity, scarcity and changes in the hydrological regime.
The submissions were presented within the public consultation on the Significant Water Management Issues (QSiGA) of the 4th cycle of the Tejo and Oeste River Basin Management Plan, for 2028-2033, which ends on Sunday.
proTEJO expects the APA to formally evaluate the Alvito Dam on the Ocreza, the Constância-Praia do Ribatejo reservoir, the Tejo water transfer to the Caia sub-basin, and the remaining reservoirs and dams associated with the so-called Tejo Project before the plan’s approval.
The movement also requests that this evaluation be published and subjected to autonomous public consultation and that, until its completion, the approval of new reservoirs, dams and water transfers be suspended.
In the submissions, proTEJO also criticizes the absence of the national strategy “Water That Unites” and of those hydraulic projects in the QSiGA documents currently under public consultation.
“It is not possible to plan ecological flows, river connectivity and water sustainability of the Tejo basin in a document that completely ignores the largest program of new hydraulic infrastructures being prepared for that same basin,” it argues.
The movement also includes among the projects it deems necessary to evaluate the two data centers announced for Abrantes, Hyperion, in Alvega, and EDC One, in Pego, arguing for an assessment of their respective water consumption in light of the water scarcity situation.
The document reiterates indicators already highlighted by proTEJO, according to which 93% of the large dams in the hydrographic region do not have a defined ecological flow regime and 98% lack devices for fish passage.
To respond to these data, the movement calls for a binding timetable for implementing ecological flows, a plan for installing fish passages, a cumulative assessment of water demand, and ecological flow targets in Cedillo and Ponte de Muge.
O proTEJO reconhece, contudo, duas evoluções positivas no novo ciclo de planeamento: a criação de uma questão autónoma sobre cooperação transfronteiriça com Espanha e outra destinada a articular o plano da bacia com outros instrumentos de gestão territorial.
The movement also regards the recent removal of some obsolete barriers in the basin as positive, but contends that river connectivity continues to present the indicators it classifies as the most serious in the entire analysis.
As QSiGA identificam as pressões, impactos e problemas que deverão ser considerados na preparação dos planos de gestão das regiões hidrográficas e estão em consulta pública desde 20 de março até 20 de setembro.
