“Given the persistent lack of supporting documents to assess the seawater desalination plant project in the Algarve, the Sustainable Water Platform (PAS) does not understand, nor does it find legal justification for, the APA to have issued a conditional approval for this project,” the environmentalists stated in a press release.

The platform emphasises that the decision on the Environmental Conformity of the Execution Project (DCAPE) of the Algarve desalination plant refers to the 45 submissions in the Public Consultation, “but does not present the content of several submissions, including that of the PAS.”

“Such an omission seems deliberate to us,” accuses the organisation, adding that PAS's participation in this public consultation listed all the demands/conditions presented in the Environmental Impact Statement [EIS] and compared them with the measures proposed in the RECAPE [Environmental Compliance Report of the Execution Project], allowing it to be proven that it “did not respond to the demands presented in the EIS.”

“Irreversible damage”

According to PAS, this favourable DCAPE, even if conditional, “paves the way for irreversible damage to the Algarve coast and the marine ecosystem” and “harms the economic activities present, namely fishing and tourism,” the environmentalists emphasize.

The platform, which brings together 13 non-governmental organizations, states that more than 400 documents were presented in the RECAPE, made available “in a completely disorganised and inorganic way, some repeated and with titles that did not allow their content to be identified.”

Despite these obstacles in the consultation process, PAS considers that several documents were still not submitted, or were submitted incompletely, namely plans, graphic surveys, and data analysis, "which necessarily had to be evaluated prior to the start of the project approval, in the preliminary design phase."

Missing documents

PAS also argues that this DCAPE (Environmental Impact Assessment and Planning Document) still requires 20 missing documents that should be submitted prior to the start of construction and the operation phase of the desalination plant.

The platform also argues that 123 mitigation measures are listed as necessary during the construction phase and should be included in the respective Environmental Monitoring Plan for the Project.

The construction of the desalination plant, located in the municipality of Albufeira and expected to be completed by the end of 2026, is part of the Algarve Regional Water Efficiency Plan, representing an investment of over 100 million euros.

The project is one of the measures responding to the drought affecting the southern region, with the expectation that the equipment will have an initial capacity to convert seawater into potable water of 16 cubic hectometres.

PAS is composed of 13 non-governmental organizations, namely, A Rocha Portugal, Água é Vida, AlBio- Associação Agroecológica do Algarve, Almargem-Associação de Defesa do Património Cultural e Ambiental do Algarve, CIVIS–Associação para o Aprofundamento da Cidadania, and Ecotopia-Associação Ambiental e de Desenvolvimento Sustentável.

Also belonging to the platform are FALA-Environmental Forum of the Alentejo Coast, Faro 1540 - Association for the Defense and Promotion of the Environmental and Cultural Heritage of Faro, Glocal Faro, League for the Protection of Nature (LPN), the Association for the Algarve Barrocal (Probaal), Quercus-National Association for Nature Conservation, the REGAR group and ZERO – Association for a Sustainable Terrestrial System.