09 Jan Spain and Portugal agree to strengthen cooperation to tackle drought situations in shared river basins
- In fulfilment of the commitment made at the Luso-Spanish Summit on 4 November in Viana do Castelo, the conditions for the functioning of the Permanent Technical Secretariat of the CADC have been established to facilitate continued cooperation between the two countries.
- In addition, the mandate of the Working Group on Water and Energy created at the Summit was analysed and the timetable of the Convention’s Working Groups for 2023 was presented.
Spain and Portugal have agreed to reinforce the measures to be adopted to prevent and deal with water shortages in the river basins shared by both countries within the framework of the Albufeira Convention and after a year marked by the drought that has affected both countries.
This is one of the decisions adopted at the 24th plenary session of the Commission for the Application and Development of the Albufeira Convention (CADC) held in Lisbon, which was attended by the Director General for Water of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Teodoro Estrela, and the President of the Interministerial Commission for Luso-Spanish Hydrographic Limits and Basins of the Ministry of Foreign Trade, Lénia Real.
At this meeting, and in compliance with the commitment made at the Luso-Spanish Summit held on 4 November in Viana do Castelo, the operating conditions of the Permanent Technical Secretariat of the CADC were established to facilitate ongoing cooperation between the two countries, especially in relation to the management of bodies of water and the hydrological planning of shared basins, which will be presented to the governments of both countries for their consideration.
In addition, the mandate of the Working Group on Water and Energy created at the aforementioned Summit was analysed and the schedule of actions of the Convention’s Working Groups for 2023 was presented.
Specifically, it was agreed that, as part of the analysis of drought and scarcity situations, the Competent Working Group will be responsible for making progress in the work aimed at harmonising the drought and scarcity indicator systems of both States.
Furthermore, the operational tasks to be carried out for the implementation of the Protocol for the exchange of information on hydrometeorological data for the management of extreme situations, which was agreed at the last meeting of the CADC held in February of this year, have been outlined, and an agreement has been reached to intensify the mechanisms for monitoring flow regimes and extreme phenomena.
Within the framework of the joint assessments of the shared basins, it was also agreed to reinforce and continue the work already begun to respond to the challenges identified, particularly in the Tagus and Guadiana basins.
The meeting was also attended, among others, by the President of the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA), the leaders of the water resources area and of the administrations of the hydrographic regions of this agency, the representatives of EDIA, as well as of the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, of the Hydrographic Confederations and of CEDEX.
Source: CHMS