Judge Hits Pause on €222M Pisão Dam, Alentejo's Water Future Unclear

Less than two months after excavators first broke the reddish soil near Crato, construction on the much-debated Pisão dam is silent again. A judge in Castelo Branco has refused to lift the suspension order, citing irreversible ecological risks that, in the court’s words, outweigh any budget overrun or lost subsidy. That single decision redraws the debate on water security in the Alto Alentejo, throws a €222.2 M investment plan into limbo, and leaves local councils hunting for alternatives before another dry summer arrives.

Courtroom logic versus concrete and steel

The Administrative and Fiscal Court of Castelo Branco delivered its ruling on 10 November, keeping the embargo in place. The judge insisted that potential harm to protected habitats, should heavy machinery return, would be “more ponderous and intense” than financial losses. Contracts can be renegotiated, the sentence argues, but a felled holm-oak grove or a flooded habitat cannot be replaced. The argument echoes a January verdict that had already cancelled the dam’s Environmental Impact Declaration.

A frustrated Comunidade Intermunicipal do Alto Alentejo, the public consortium managing the project, had asked the court to annul the stoppage, calling the inspection report ‘generic’. Magistrates disagreed and reminded CIMAA that several engineers continued clearing brush after the first suspension order. The judge referred to ‘ongoing works’ as proof that halting the project was the only way to prevent further damage.

Why environmental groups dug in their heels

Conservation organisations, among them LPN, ZERO, Quercus and GEOTA, hail the ruling as a victory for legality. Their filings list a catalogue of worries: nearly 60 000 protected trees marked for removal, 14 priority habitats at risk, and the projected submersion of the village of Pisão itself. They also point to climate math, saying the reservoir would destroy carbon-capturing woodland and release fresh greenhouse gases.

Campaigners claim the utility argument never held up: the dam would add barely 1 % to the region’s annual water supply, they say, while the irrigation benefit could be reached through cheaper efficiency measures. Crucially, Brussels withdrew €120 M earmarked under the Recovery and Resilience Plan once auditors decided the project violated the ‘do-no-significant-harm’ requirement for EU funds.

Financial dominoes and political aftershocks

With PRR money gone, Lisbon shuffled the project onto the State Budget and the yet-to-be-approved Portugal 2030 envelope. Ministers José Manuel Fernandes and Hélder Reis insist the extra cost—now €222.2 M—will not derail plans, arguing the reservoir remains ‘structural’ for national resilience. Yet the court delay pushes the timetable beyond the original June 2026 deadline, which was already extended to 2027.

Inside CIMAA, mayors head to the polls on 13 November to choose a new chair. Candidates from Portalegre and Crato are campaigning on the promise they will ‘unlock’ the dam. Behind the scenes, municipal treasurers are recalculating cashflows: compensation clauses tied to the main contractor, Somague, kick in after 90 idle days. Ratepayers could ultimately fund those penalties if the impasse lingers.

Thirsty fields and a region on edge

Every summer the Alto Alentejo watches reservoirs shrink and eucalyptus stands turn brittle brown by August. The government touts Pisão as the missing piece in a wider network that already includes Alqueva and Monte da Rocha. Without it, technicians warn, the region’s water buffer remains fragile. Last harvest, farmers saw allocations cut by 30 % in parts of Avis and Fronteira.

To ease the pressure, Águas do Alto Alentejo is racing to halve leakage rates through an AI-powered monitoring program, while the Regional Development Commission channels EU funds into river-bank rehabilitation, small detention basins and recycled-water schemes for golf courses. None of those measures, however, store the same volume as the 115-million-cubic-metre dam would.

Hydrologist João Teixeira notes a strategic paradox: “We now depend more heavily on Alqueva, exactly what Pisão was meant to reduce.” Environmentalists counter that the drought plan should prioritise efficiency over new reservoirs, pointing to Spanish regions that slashed consumption by upgrading irrigation pivots instead of building walls of concrete.

What happens next

Legal experts expect CIMAA to file a full appeal to the Supreme Administrative Court, a process that could stretch deep into 2026. In parallel, the consortium is redrafting the environmental study, hoping a revised version will satisfy regulators and neutralise the injunction. If that fails, the government may still push a special decree invoking ‘overriding public interest’, a politically risky move one year away from a general election.

Meanwhile, contractors keep machinery on standby in a fenced-off logistics yard near Figueira e Barros. Local residents walk past idle dump trucks that were supposed to carry the valley’s schist to the dam’s core. For now, the only sound echoing through the planned inundation zone is birdsong—something environmentalists hope will remain a permanent feature, and project advocates fear could become the soundtrack of a stalled dream.