"The entire Government is mobilised so that we can present our PTRR, Portugal Recovery and Resilience, to the country, and so that we can also have all state departments and civil society mobilised, according to a principle that is also to have a more productive, more competitive economy, a greater capacity for wealth creation, because a country, in order to sustain all these projects, has to create wealth," he said.

The Prime Minister, who was speaking to journalists during a visit to Alcácer do Sal, a municipality in the Setúbal district that has been heavily affected by the rising waters of the Sado River, which reached about two meters in height in the lower areas of the city, also highlighted other programs that are being designed by the executive branch as part of a long-term strategy.

“The Water That Unites program is designed for 25 years, precisely to manage all watercourses, storage, and the possibility of using it, whether for domestic consumption or for our economic activities, this essential resource, especially in areas where it is most needed and where there are periods of drought,” said Luís Montenegro.

“That is one of the components. The other is our plan regarding the forest, which is also a 25-year plan and which we now also have to accelerate, because forest management also has a lot to do with the resilience of our soils, our watercourses, our management capacity, and even sustainability,” he added.

Luís Montenegro also stressed that, along with these interventions, the Government also intends to improve the response capacity of other fundamental areas.

To this we will add critical infrastructure, electricity supply network, communications and telecommunications network, water supply, sanitation, all those that are essential services,” he emphasised.

“We have a program called ProRio, which is already underway. We are already carrying out works, often small-scale, for the management of waterways, the cleaning of waterways, the construction of small dams, small reservoirs, both for agricultural use and for environmental protection,” he stressed.

When asked about the damage caused by the bad weather, Luís Montenegro said that the latest estimate, made about 48 hours ago, “already exceeded 4.6 billion euros.”

During his visit to Alcácer do Sal, Luís Montenegro also warned of the intense rainfall forecast for the coming hours, which may mainly affect the Tagus and Sado river basins, and called for maximum vigilance in these two regions, as well as in all other regions across the country.