A consortium of 26 institutions from nine countries wants to develop a sustainable resource management project in the Algarve, applying the principles of the circular economy to combat the lack of water in the region, it was announced this Wednesday.
The project consists of creating “a demonstration unit with the aim of finding solutions for sustainable resource management, particularly for agriculture and food production”, Alexandre Gonçalves, one of the technical managers, told the Lusa agency.
Called CisWEFE-NEX, the project has a global value of 11.5 million euros (ME), financed by 9.5 ME by community funds through Cluster 6 of Horizonte Europe within the Circular Cities and Regions initiative.
According to Alexandre Gonçalves, the project presented this Wednesday in Portimão was approved with a duration of five years, three for the implementation of the industrial demonstration unit and two for the demonstration of the final product.
The Algarve was the pilot region selected to test the system, as it is part of the Alentejo-Algarve-Andalusia Euroregion and faces common environmental challenges, including water stress.
“Here the objective is to reuse brackish water and olive pomace, which contains a large percentage of water, for irrigation of an agrovoltaic production system”, he pointed out.
At the same time, he said, he intends to demonstrate “the sustainability of resources and economics, in the sense that the system can be replicated by agricultural entrepreneurs”.
The demonstrator unit, made up of several subsystems – an agrovoltaic area, irrigation lagoon, salt pans and water treatment and desalination units – will be installed in an area of around six hectares in Mexilhoeira Grande, in the municipality of Portimão.
According to Alexandre Gonçalves, the project already has community financing approved, but is awaiting licensing from the Algarve Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR), Portuguese Environment Agency () and Portimão City Council.
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