Around €15 million is being invested in modernising the ageing irrigation infrastructure serving parts of Lagos and Portimão, in what the Algarve Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR Algarve) describes as the largest irrigation modernisation project currently underway in the region.

Agriculture and Sea Minister José Manuel Fernandes visited the works on Friday, 28 August, alongside representatives from the CCDR Algarve, local councils and agricultural organisations.

Once the planned improvements are complete, Fernandes estimates the system could use around 60% less water, representing annual savings of close to €2 million.

The project is particularly significant in a region where repeated droughts have forced restrictions on agricultural water use and brought the condition of the Algarve’s ageing water infrastructure into focus.

Replacing open channels

The first phase includes a new reservoir, pumping station and filtration station, as well as the modernisation of around two kilometres of the main supply canal.

Closed pipes are being installed within the existing infrastructure, beginning a transition away from an open-channel distribution system where water can be lost before it reaches farms.

Solar panels will also be installed to help power the pumping station and reduce its energy costs.

The official project dates back to a DGADR modernisation contract worth approximately €11.2 million, financed through Portugal’s Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR). Wider works associated with the project bring the investment to around €15 million.

The Alvor agricultural irrigation scheme serves 1,747 hectares, with 800 hectares in Lagos and 947 in Portimão, according to official regulations published in 2025.

Its water comes from the reservoir created by the Bravura Dam on the Ribeira de Odeáxere.

The infrastructure is now approaching seven decades old, and its modernisation became increasingly urgent after water stored at Bravura fell to exceptionally low levels during the Algarve’s recent drought.

Conditions at the reservoir have since improved substantially. The Association of Irrigators and Beneficiaries of Alvor reported Bravura at 82% of capacity on 28 August, with around 28.6 million cubic metres stored.

That recovery does not, however, remove the Algarve’s longer-term water challenge, and improving efficiency is one of several measures being pursued to make the region less vulnerable to future droughts.

A second phase of the Alvor-Bravura modernisation is already being considered, with Fernandes putting the potential additional investment at around €40 million.

The Minister said future water management needs to combine greater storage capacity with efficiency and better connections between systems, while ensuring supplies for households, agriculture, tourism, industry and other uses.

The Alvor-Bravura project forms part of the Algarve’s wider regional water-efficiency strategy and the national Água que Une programme.