Speaking to the Lusa agency, the administrator of the municipal company Tavira Verde, the entity that manages the public water supply in this Algarve municipality, said that “the cut began to be implemented this week, as part of the fight against drought in the Algarve”.

Antonio Ramos justified the cut in supply to pool and garden meters, due to the fact that customers “had not reduced consumption by 70%, as had been requested by the company”.

“We told [customers] that they could only consume 30%, but as there was no expected reduction, we moved forward with this measure to try to reach the end of the year with a total reduction of around 10%”, he highlighted.

The administrator of Tavira Verde acknowledged that “there was an effort by all residents” to save water, but “it was not enough”.

The municipality, he also said, is committed to complying with the 10% reduction in relation to 2023, decreed by the Government for urban consumption, admitting that “it will be difficult to achieve this target by the end of the year”.

“We are only experiencing an overall reduction of 7%, which forces us to adopt measures, in the last two months, to reduce consumption in public and private spaces, which we estimate will be a reduction of 2%”, he highlighted.

Antonio Ramos considered that the cut in supply for garden irrigation and swimming pool maintenance “will not have a major impact due to the weather conditions, given that the season is more humid and with some rain”.

Along with cutting off the supply to the second meters, the municipal corporation is also reducing the pressure in the water pipes during the daily period between 0 am and 6 am, the official revealed.

“Between midnight and 6am we reduce the pressure to very low values ​​and during the day, we maintain a controlled normal pressure, so that water reaches the entire population,” he said.