The Alqueva reservoir, in the Alentejo, rose 1.87 metres during the last week, with an intake of almost 360 million cubic metres of water, and is now “at 80%” of capacity.

“The last two storms brought important rainfall and also brought runoff” to the reservoir, José Pedro Salema, president of the Alqueva Development and Infrastructure Company (EDIA), told Lusa agency.


In a statement published on Facebook, EDIA announced that the Alqueva reservoir was at elevation 148.60, which represented an increase of 1.87 meters compared to last Monday.



“This increase in quota is reflected in a storage of 358 cubic hectometres (hm3) of water”, added the company, indicating that the reservoir stored, at that time, 3,332 hm3.

Contacted by Lusa, the president of EDIA said that this value means that Alqueva is “at 80%” of its maximum storage capacity and highlighted that, due to the intense rain that fell in the region last week, today's numbers “run the risk” of becoming “quickly outdated”.

“The tributary volumes [to Alqueva] are still important”, warned José Pedro Salema.

During the last week, thanks to the rain that fell, the rise in the reservoir was due to the water coming from the Guadiana river, which “had very significant flows reaching” the Alqueva, with numbers “close to 1,200 cubic metres per second, which is something like an Olympic swimming pool every two seconds”, he explained.

“Winter is still far from over, we still have many months to go until spring, when important runoffs could also occur. Therefore, we are comfortable, whether more water comes or not”.

The Alqueva Multi-Purpose Enterprise guarantees water for agriculture, with an irrigated area of 130 thousand hectares, for public and industrial supply and for the production of hydroelectric energy, in addition to boosting tourism in the Alentejo region.