On June 22, 1999, the Minister of the Environment, Elisa Ferreira, announced the decision to build the Odelouca dam in the Western Algarve. The project, which was originally designed in the 1960s, was halted due to an important debate about the environmental impact of the project, a debate that has come to question the very need to build the dam. In the approved version, the project represents an intermediate position between the two extreme options at issue, namely the abandonment of the project (Option Zero) advocated by a number of organizations dedicated to the protection of the environment and heritage, of a dam with maximum possible capacity, given the conditions of the area, construction promoted by the National Water Institute (INAG), contracting companies, local authorities and the “regional business community”.

To a large extent, it can be said that the decision adopted (Solution 2), which implies the construction of a dam of a smaller size than those contemplated in the option promoted by INAG, drew disagreement, both from others and from others. On the one hand, most of the environmental associations opposing the construction of the dam accused the government of authorizing what they consider to be an unjustifiable project, both from the point of view of the demonstrable needs for an estimate of water consumption for the next twenty-five years, and from the point of view of an irreversible environmental impact that such work will produce. On the other hand, INAG and local authorities, who wanted to build a large dam, should be content with an intermediate option that would significantly reduce the volume of water they intended to store “for strategic purposes”. The most conspicuous representatives of the “local business community”, who had welcomed the official announcement, said that they lamented the “tardiness” of the decision, alluding to the successive delays and blockages suffered by the project, especially during the last three years.

In a sense, the announcement of the construction of the dam seems to be the end of a long stage of conflicts around the project. However, due to a very complex set of environmental, technological, economic, social and political factors, ranging from the persistent resistance of environmental organizations to the project, to the limitations and urgencies arising from the desertification process affecting the Iberian Peninsula, until the formal and informal negotiations with Spain on the use of the international basins, in particular that of the Guadiana River, it is highly probable that conflicts over this project will continue and amplify. The purpose
of this work is precisely to offer a characterization of the evolution of the conflict around the dam of Odelouca and to anticipate the central issues that will surely continue to affect the development of this project and, consequently, the regional development itself.

Associated Publications:

Episódio de Conflito Ambiental – O Caso da Barragem de Odelouca“