Residents Clash Over Algarve’s €108M Desalination Lifeline Amid Record Drought

Long-simmering tensions over the Algarve’s first seawater-desalination plant erupted again this week after national regulators gave the green light—albeit a conditional one—to start building. Environmental groups say the decision rests on a pile of missing paperwork, while regional officials argue there is no time to lose if the south wants to keep taps running during ever-longer droughts.

At a glance

• Conditional approval issued by the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) has fast-tracked a €108 M plant near Albufeira.

• The Sustainable Water Platform (PAS), a coalition of 13 NGOs, claims vital studies are still absent and warns of “irreversible damage” to marine life and coastal tourism.

• Two court actions have already failed, yet fresh lawsuits and EU complaints are in the pipeline.

• Government hopes the facility will supply 16 hm³ of drinking water a year—roughly enough for 200 000 residents—once it opens in late 2026.

A lifeline for a thirsty south…

Severe drought has become the new normal for the Algarve. Reservoirs that once brimmed after winter now limp into summer at below-20 % capacity, forcing emergency transfers from the Alentejo and tighter irrigation quotas for farmers. Against this backdrop, the regional utility Águas do Algarve insists a seawater desalination plant is the quickest, most reliable way to stabilise supply. The project sits at the heart of the Regional Water Efficiency Plan, a €280 M package that mixes conservation, reuse and new infrastructure.

…or a costly ecological gamble?

PAS paints a starkly different picture. According to the umbrella group, more than 400 technical files uploaded to the RECAPE portal were so “disorganised and repetitive” that even seasoned engineers struggled to locate key diagrams. Among the 45 public-consultation submissions, the APA’s final report summarises but does not reproduce several critical objections—including PAS’s own 90-page dossier that cross-checked every mitigation promise made in the original Environmental Impact Statement.

PAS lists twenty “missing or incomplete” documents it says should have been available before any ruling, from granular bathymetric maps to updated brine-plume modelling. Without them, the coalition argues, regulators cannot be sure the outfall pipe will avoid sensitive habitats like the Pedra do Valado Reef or prevent salt concentrations lethal to benthic species.

Fishing nets and sun loungers on the line

The Algarve’s economy balances on two pillars—tourism and small-scale fishing—both of which could feel the plant’s footprint. Fishermen’s associations fear higher salinity will push octopus and cuttlefish farther offshore, eroding already thin profit margins. Hotel managers worry that construction on Praia da Falésia’s iconic cliffs and a permanent industrial silhouette on the horizon will dent the area’s postcard appeal. The official Environmental Impact Assessment concluded these effects are “negligible”, but critics note the study relied on 2022 visitor data, well before record post-pandemic crowds returned.

Courtrooms, councils and Brussels

So far, the opponents have had mixed luck in court. A July injunction briefly froze the public-hearing timetable, only for the Administrative Court of Loulé to dismiss the case in October for “lack of instrumentality.” A separate suit filed by a property company unhappy about land expropriation met the same fate. Undeterred, PAS has escalated its grievances to the European Commission and the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee, arguing that Portugal breached transparency rules by posting multi-lingual files without clear titles and leaving just 15 working days for analysis.

Funding shuffle and political stakes

Lisbon initially earmarked the project for the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility, but shortages in other climate lines prompted a January decision to transfer the budget to Sustentável 2030, a domestic programme co-financed by Brussels. The move ensures money will still flow—yet also places the works under tighter national audit rules, a detail PAS plans to leverage in its next legal round.

Meanwhile, the Environment Ministry defends the APA’s conditional verdict: 123 mitigation measures are now baked into the construction licence, from real-time monitoring of brine salinity to noise caps protecting bird nurseries. Águas do Algarve says it will publish missing studies “within weeks” and insists there is “ample margin” to hit the 2026 completion date.

What to watch over the next 12 months

The coming year will determine whether the desalination gamble proceeds or stalls.

Delivery of the 20 outstanding reports flagged by PAS will test APA’s oversight credibility.

The tender for a photovoltaic park meant to offset the plant’s huge power appetite must clear local-planning hurdles.

A final ruling from Brussels on the alleged public-participation breach could set a precedent for other EU desalination projects.

If construction begins on schedule in early spring, expect the first pipeline welds along the N125 by midsummer.

For Algarve residents—and by extension, tourists and fisheries that depend on the region’s clear blue waters—the next few months will reveal whether desalination becomes a water-security milestone or another chapter in Portugal’s long battle between development and environmental stewardship.