Water supply crisis in southern Lisbon
Water supplies in the coastal region around Almada in Portugal have been repeatedly disrupted for over a week – in the middle of the high season. The shortages are the result of rising resident and tourist numbers and an ageing infrastructure in which around a third of the water volume is lost through leaks. Portuguese media call for action.
Portugal needs a serious strategy
This should serve as a wake-up call, writes Visão:
“Portugal seems to be realising only now that water – whether in Almada or elsewhere in the country – does not spring forth from press conferences or speeches by politicians and local councillors, nor from the renderings of the luxury resorts springing up along our beautiful coastline, nor from the digital promises of the cloud. It springs from where it has always sprung: from the ground, from rivers, from aquifers, from the rain. ... Portugal needs clear public maps, transparent data, proper monitoring of groundwater levels, the renewal of its water distribution networks, effective measures to tackle water wastage, the recycling of wastewater, and less irresponsible urban and tourism planning.”
A disgrace
Correio da Manhã is outraged:
“The collapse of the water supply in Almada is a disgrace for the local authorities. Whether it's due to incompetence, negligence or whatever – it is unacceptable that thousands of people have been struggling with water shortages for over a month, at the height of summer, in a tourist region on the capital's doorstep. … This casts a bad light on the local politicians who strive daily to solve the problems of the people who elected them. And that is the first key lesson we can learn from this regrettable episode: the importance of local elections and how our voting choices affect our daily lives.”
Voters must punish incompetence
Diário de Notícias sees this as a test for democracy:
“If the Almada local council has failed to resolve the problem of the deteriorating public supplies network for more than 40 years, why have voters accepted this situation? This question is of key importance, as it highlights the role that citizens must play in a democracy. ... Competence, efficiency and good governance are not guaranteed by the democratic system; they depend entirely on us and the electoral choices we make. And if those electoral choices are poor, the democratic system itself is at risk – with the consequences that history teaches us: it can become a plaything of populism and demagoguery and ultimately turn into tyranny.”
Careening towards the next crisis
French politicians knowingly accept such scenarios, Le Monde laments:
“Faced with worsening water shortages, the members of the Senate voted without hesitation on 3 July to completely dismantle the principles underpinning local water management bodies in favour of a handful of irrigation companies. Already today we're seeing customers at supermarkets coming to blows over the last fans left on the shelves: what will happen when it's water that runs out? Then there will no doubt be someone who asks: 'Who could have predicted this?' Yet the future is not only foreseeable, it's being written as we speak.”