Ourique: Minister for the Environment at the dam of Monte da Rocha with positive steps.
The government chose the dam of Monte da Rocha, in Ourique, to announce the Short Term Intervention Program in reservoirs where interventions needs were identified to expand the storage capacity and improved water quality.
The dam of Monte da Rocha, which currently registers a water volume of only 8%, It will be one of the target systems of government intervention.
At the beginning of December 2017, President of the Municipality of Ourique, Marcelo Guerreiro wrote to the Ministry of Environment stressing that "The Country, the region of Baixo Alentejo Ourique and are faced with a worrying situation of extreme drought that put a number of risks and challenges to water supply for human consumption, the rational management of a natural resource essential to life and use of this resource in the development of productive activities essential for our rural world and for our Local Economies. ".
Marcelo Guerrero argued then that "Over the years as has noted at the openings of the ETA and the remodeling of the WWTP Monte da Rocha, in conjunction with the Alentejo Waters, We have maintained an infrastructure consolidation strategy to ensure the water supply for human consumption and other uses, as well as the treatment of waste in order to preserve the environmental balance. This effort needs to count on the contribution of meteorology, increasingly determined by climate change, and with the appropriate investments to enhance the efficient use of available resources. That is why there is so much demand the connection of the Purple Dam to Dam Monte da Rocha, ensuring that the water of the Alqueva reach the South of the Lower Alentejo Region.
In the letter sent at the end of 2017, It recalled that the Municipality of Ourique had effusively greeted the Government, through the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development, Luis Capoulas Santos, obtaining announcement by the 260 million euros of funding from the European Investment Bank to strengthen the focus on the irrigation, water storage and for its efficient use. The completion of the Purple dam project connecting the Monte da Rocha dam is great news for Ourique and the Alentejo. News that sustainability means, good management of natural resources and future.
Marcelo Guerreiro concluded the letter to the government with an invitation to the government to carry out "a visit to the dam of Monte da Rocha in Ourique, in order to start working on plans to address any water supply problems in the near future. ".
The initiative held today at the dam of Monte da Rocha is a positive step in building sustainable solutions and future for the supply and efficient use of water in the territory of Ourique and low Alentejo.
The Municipality of Ourique continues to mobilize desires to build solutions involving other power levels and implement policies focused on local people, the enhancement of the region and in the affirmation of Ourique and its rural world.
