“The municipality of Vila Real de Santo António and the company Águas de Vila Real de Santo António (AdVRSA) reached an agreement to review the water supply tariff. The new tariff will reflect an increase of just 16%, a value significantly lower than the 50% initially foreseen in the contract”, welcomed the Algarve municipality in a statement.

The Vila Real de Santo António Chamber explained that at issue is a “tariff adjustment” that will “exclusively incorporate the value of inflation, according to data made available by the National Institute of Statistics (INE)”, ruling out the scenario of an increase that should have been applied since 2020 and that, in 2024, it would reach 50%.

“Under the terms of the contract, the tariff should have been updated annually since 2020 and would now be around 50% more expensive. As it is not possible for the company to continue maintaining the tariff without, at least, incorporating inflation, the company reached this agreement with the municipality, allowing significant savings for consumers”.

The tariff review agreed with the water supply company will imply an increase of “only eight cents per cubic metre”, highlighted the mayor of Vila Real de Santo António, Álvaro Araújo, cited in the statement.

“This value will not be significant for those with normal consumption”, he considered, stressing that the agreement reached allows “to minimise the financial impact on families in the municipality”, by avoiding a steeper increase in the tariff.