Speaking to the Lusa agency, the president of the Association of Beneficiaries of the Sotavento Algarve Irrigation Plan, Macário Correia, considered that this was “a delay that was not expected” and is a matter that needs to “urgently” be resolved.

“Every day that passes is one less day we have to make decisions and organize our lives and it is perfectly reasonable for the decision to be taken”, said the former mayor of Faro and Tavira.

The easing of restrictions imposed on water consumption in the Algarve was approved by the Council of Ministers last week, but farmers continue to wait for the publication in the Diário da República to see exactly what the reductions will be.

After revoking the previous Government's resolution, the new executive updated on May 22 the restrictions imposed on water consumption in the Algarve, which decreased from 25% to 13% in agriculture and from 15% to 10% in the urban sector.

“The meeting was almost a month ago, […] the measures were announced, then there was the Council of Ministers [last Friday] that dealt with this”, but “to date, we have not had any measures officially communicated”, he lamented.