There is a tradition for a centralized administration
and decision making processes in Portugal, although water resources
planning is usually equated in terms of river basins and approached
in a quite integrated manner.
The tradition of centralization is partially explained
by the need for heavy public investments in this sector in order
to build the infrastructures required for counterbalancing the
heavy seasonal availabilities and needs.
The agricultural sector, corresponding approximately
to 80% of water use in Portugal, requires heavy investments in
storage. Hydropower generation and water supply to large metropolitan
areas have also been the object of heavy investments made by public
companies, favoring a centralized control of water management
by central Government and Administration.
Irrigation accounts for 77% of the total volume of
water use, Industry is the second largest (16%), Public water
supply is the third (7%).
Until 1986, water resources planning and management
were under the Ministry of Public Works. Then there was a shift
to include it as the competence of the Secretary of State for
the Environment and Natural Resources, then a branch of the Ministry
of Planning and Territorial Administration. It was in 1990 that
the Ministry for Environment and Natural Resources was created,
since 1995 renamed as Ministry for the Environment.
The structure of the Ministry is composed of three
horizontal organizations, four sectoral institutes and five regional
directorates :
The five Regional Directorates for the Environment
and Natural Resources (DRARN), with headquarters in Oporto, Coimbra,
Lisbon, Evora and Faro, are responsible for all aspects of environmental
management, including water, and for coordinating, at the regional
level, all environmental policies. They report directly to the
Minister for the Environment and coordinate all sectors of activity,
such as water, air, waste, nature conservation, consumer protection,
and interfacing with other regional policies like industry or
agriculture, corresponding thus to a " Ministry "
at regional level.
This very high profile of the Regional Directorates
is still far from being effective. In fact, these regional structures
have a tremendous lack of human and financial resources and the
very strict and rigid conditions imposed on public administration
do not allow significant improvements in the short term. This
situation raises ambiguities: regional structures are strong in
theory but weak in practice; as the other and central structures
keep playing a very relevant role at the regional level.
Under these circumstances the Institute for Water
must perform not only its assigned duties, such as helping defining
a national policy for water or negotiating at the international
level (EU and international river basins), but it must also interfere
at the regional and local level in most situations. In fact, the
process of decentralization envisaged by the recent legislation
is still far from being visible.
The municipalities used to play a very important
role in the management of water and wastewater systems. In fact,
until now, municipalities were the only entities responsible for
domestic water supply and wastewater disposal. The metropolitan
area of Lisbon has been the only exception to this rule with a
company owned by the Government (EPAL) providing water directly
to the consumers in Lisbon and selling water to the surrounding
municipalities that distribute locally.
More than 250 other municipalities in Continental
Portugal have been obliged to solve their own water supply and
wastewater disposal problems. For this reason services have been
quite dispersed and fragmented, in most cases, based on small
size systems and, often of low efficiency.
With the new legislation, five large water companies
were formed to supply water or treat sewage in the heavily populated
metropolitan areas. These companies are beginning to operate in
the water supply on the northern and southern metropolitan areas
of Oporto and soon will be operating in the eastern and western
areas of the Algarve, as well as dealing with the sewage disposal
along the Estoril coast, west of Lisbon.
These new companies are integrated in a holding corporation,
called Waters of Portugal (IPE-ADP), responsible for implementation
and strategic planning. Altogether, these companies, and the previously
existing EPAL, will supply water to more than 52% of the Portuguese
population. Other companies for operating multi-municipal systems
may be created in the near future. Small systems all over the
country can be operated by private companies under a contract
of concession with the municipalities.
Additional major agencies with significant responsibilities
in the institutional framework of water planning and management:
REFERENCES
EUROWATER 1995 - Institutional Dimensions of Water Resources Management - Comparative Analysis in the European Union and the United States. Proceedings of the Conference for the Dissemination of Results, 24 Documents. IST, July 1995, Lisbon.