In a statement, the concessionaire of the multi-municipal water supply and sanitation system in the North of Portugal explains that that pilot project is part of the REGADOURO program and is promoted by the consortium formed by ADVID - Cluster da Vinha e do Vinho, Águas do Norte, Poças - Sociedade Vinícola Terras de Valdigem (SVTV), the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD) and Veolia Portugal.

The project aims to irrigate vineyards using wastewater treated in one of the WWTP (Waste Water Treatment Station) that is part of the multi-municipal water supply system and sanitation in the North of Portugal, which will also allow the use of nutrients and fertilizers present in it.

“In an area with 14 municipalities, 44,000 hectares of vineyards and 31 WWTP, many of them very close to the vineyards of the Douro Demarcated Region, there is enormous potential for the reuse of treated wastewater in their irrigation. Therefore, as the entity responsible for managing the Multimunicipal System in the North of Portugal, our commitment is to achieve more than 50% of the respective water reused in the irrigation of vineyards”, explains, in the text, the president of the Board of Directors of Águas do Norte, José Machado do Vale, representing the REGADOURO consortium.

Água do Norte highlights that “by developing a new method of using water, which would otherwise be wasted, and by giving it a new usability, the REGADOURO project is also making its contribution to accelerating the fulfilment of the 2030 Agenda, approved in 2015”.