"A new dam [Alvito] seems very important to us. We will then probably discuss its size. What we did was recover a project that already had a [favourable] environmental impact study. We started from an existing project and it is easier to introduce this proposal”, said Duarte Cordeiro, in Proença-a-Nova, in the district of Castelo Branco.

The minister was speaking during the public session to present solutions for reinforcing the water resilience of the Tagus, which took place in Proença-a-Nova, in the district of Castelo Branco.

“Alvito seems to us, also due to its geographical position, to be quite important and I also think it is particularly important to reuse treated water to be used for irrigation”, he underlined.

On the table to be analysed and discussed by the Intermunicipal Communities (CIM) and by the municipalities are the construction of a new dam, the Alvito dam on the Ocreza river, and a tunnel that connects the Zêzere river to the Tagus, also with the same objective of reinforcing the ecological flow of the Tagus, further north.

The possibility of creating an infrastructure to bring treated water from the Lisbon Metropolitan Area for reuse in the Lezíria do Tejo, responding to the territory's irrigation needs, from an agricultural point of view, is another of the points raised for discussion.