Month: August 2022

SPAIN DECLARED THIS TUESDAY DISASTER ZONES IN 15 OF THE COUNTRY’S 17 AUTONOMOUS REGIONS, DUE TO THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE FIRES.

Only in the regions of Cantabria and Asturias (northern Spain) there was no declaration of “areas severely affected by a civil protection emergency”, commonly known as “disaster zones”, said the Minister Spokesperson for the Government, Isabel Rodríguez.

In the 15 regions affected by the fires, there have been 120 fires since June, some of them considered “big fires”, those that burn more than 500 hectares, which forced the temporary displacement of hundreds of thousands of people, said Minister Isabel Rodríguez.

The minister said that this year’s fires, due to their intensity and size, are “different fires”, the result of climate change and the high temperatures that have been recorded since June. Fires have also burned in 2022 more than the total for the previous five years, according to Spanish government data updated as of August 14.

Unfortunately, another confirmation of the previously announced trend across Europe.

Drought: Municipalities reduce garden watering and launch awareness campaigns

Measures being takenaround the country

Lisbon, Aug 21, 2022 (Lusa) – Municipalities across the country have adopted measures to minimize the general situation of drought, which include reducing garden watering, using recycled water in washing, reducing flows and more campaigns to awareness.

Since October of last year, it has rained practically half of what would be a normal hydrological year, according to the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) on August 9.

At least around eight thousand people from 50 localities in Trás-os-Montes are being supplied this summer with the help of auto-tanks due to the lack of water in the supply systems, namely in the municipalities of Carrazeda de Ansiães, Bragança, Macedo de Cavaleiros, Alfândega da Fé, Mogadouro and Vimioso, in the district of Bragança, and Alijó, in the district of Vila Real.

In Beja, public water supply is also being provided by auto-tanks in locations in six municipalities served by the Águas Públicas do Alentejo (AgdA) system, in villages of Aljustrel, Mértola and Moura (in the district of Beja), Alcácer do Sal and Santiago do Cacém (Setúbal) and Montemor-o-Novo (Évora).

Among the measures already adopted by the councils to reduce water consumption from public supply networks is the control of irrigation and the use of non-potable water from natural courses in public spaces and gardens and the alteration of the flora to native species that are more resistant to the climate. , as in the municipalities of Amarante, Penafiel and Paredes, in the district of Porto.

The deactivation and reprogramming of automatic irrigation systems or the creation of boreholes in urban parks to save water from the network are some of the measures implemented by other municipalities in Greater Porto, such as Gondomar, Matosinhos, Gaia and Santo Tirso, which also turned off the fountains and reduced the water available at public drinking fountains and fountains.

In addition to reducing irrigation, the Municipality of Reguengos de Monsaraz, Évora, announced the installation of high water efficiency equipment in municipal buildings, as well as campaigns with the population with tips to reduce consumption in the water bill itself.

In Beja, the Almodôvar Chamber informed the population about which public wells and boreholes are not used for human consumption, but which can be used for animal watering or irrigation.

In the district of Leiria, this municipality and the municipality of Nazaré opted to invest in new deposits to increase water storage capacity, while the Porto de Mós Chamber is reinforcing supervision to prevent fraudulent use of water, especially connections metering and misuse of public fire hydrants and fountains, especially in areas where “a consumption higher than usual” was detected.

In the Algarve, several municipalities decided to close municipal swimming pools and ornamental fountains or install flow reducers and the Algarve Tourism Region also proposed to tourist developments to reduce water in ornamental fountains, in the irrigation of green spaces and in the renewal of water in swimming pools as contingency measures to respond to the drought situation.

The Câmara de Loulé, for example, will keep the indoor swimming pools and in Quarteira closed until September, in addition to closing the outdoor swimming pools in Loulé and Salir on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, starting next Monday. .

In Castro Marim, the water tank in the village of Corte do Gago is supplied daily by a tanker truck since the wells that supplied the town dried up. This situation has already led the mayor, Francisco Amaral, to criticize political decision-makers for the “delay” in the construction of the water desalination plant, and, like the neighboring mayor of Alcoutim, Osvaldo Gonçalves, to defend the construction of a dam on the Foupana stream, a tributary of the Guadiana river.

The 19 chambers of the Intermunicipal Community (CIM) of the Douro also decided to survey the springs, boreholes and abstractions.

In Abrantes, Santarém, the Chamber will move forward with a global project to capture water from alternative sources and implement smart meters that allow the automatic reading of water consumption and identify leaks.

In Lisbon, a recommendation for sustainable water management in the city was approved and green spaces began to be irrigated with reused water, while Sabugal (Guarda) and Torres Vedras (Lisbon) reviewed their respective Contingency Plans for Drought Situations.

Awareness campaigns on the misuse of water and means of combating waste have also been carried out from north to south of the country, such as in Tondela, Alcácer do Sal and Guarda, where the Chamber appealed to residents and emigrants who spend their holidays in the municipality to who have “regulated consumption”.

In Alijó, a municipality in the district of Vila Real also affected by extreme drought, four young people exchanged their vacations for volunteering and this summer they are raising awareness among the population of about 50 villages in the municipality to save water.

The company Águas Públicas da Serra da Estrela (APdSE), based in Seia, appealed to consumers to reuse water whenever possible, take quick showers, wash their teeth or hands with the tap turned off, half flush the toilet, use washing machines and dishwashers at full load, fix leaks in the plumbing, don’t waste water during irrigation and don’t wash cars with the hose (opting to use a bucket).

Due to the drought, the Government decreed a minimum quota beyond which the dams cannot turbine, so the drought also affects the production of electricity.

The lowering of the water level was used to clean the dams and in the Alto Rabagão reservoir, in Montalegre, it was possible to remove a crashed seaplane submerged since 2007.

The drought situation does not only cover Portugal, but it is transversal to Europe and an analysis by the “World Wide Fund for Nature” (WWF) organization, released on Wednesday, indicates that about 17% of the European population is at great risk of drought, water scarcity by 2050, which could affect 13% of Europe’s GDP.

CYCLIST IÚRI LEITÃO GOLD MEDAL AT EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS IN SCRATCH

Portuguese cyclist Iúri Leitão won the gold medal in scratch – a track cycling modality – for men at the European Championships in Munich.

A scratch race is a track cycling race in which all riders start together and the objective is simply to be first over the finish line after a certain number of laps.

The young Portuguese rider, 24 years old, has put two laps ahead of the rest of the peloton and then managed the advantage to secure the European title.

Yuri Leitão repeats the title achieved in 2020 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria

CONGRATULATIONS

It will be a hot August in the countryside, but the excesses of July should not be repeated

Cristina Simões, meteorologist at the IPMA

Experts predict that in Portugal in August: temperatures above normal in the interior and slightly below average on the coast. The occurrence of a heat wave as extreme as the one in July seems, at least for now, unlikely.

At the moment, the long-term forecasts of the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and the Atmosphere (IPMA) say it is unlikely that, in August, we will have the extreme heat that we had in July. Even so, the month could be, in some regions of mainland Portugal, a month of above-average temperatures. Possibly, we will see a two-faced country. On the coast, thermometers should register slightly lower values ​​than normal for the time of year. Inside, the heat should be more intense than it already tends to be.

Focusing on the first seven days of August, Cristina Simões, meteorologist at the IPMA, says that, after the increased heat felt this weekend, there should be a slight general drop in temperatures. But the highs are expected to remain quite high inland. “The first week of August should be identical to the last week of July, with the coast being cooler and the interior with higher temperatures. As a general rule, nothing too unusual for the time of year we are in,” she points out.

The meteorologist says that, in Lisbon, the maximum should be close to 30 degrees in this first week of August. In Porto, only some regions are expected to reach 38 ºC. “The heat should be higher in inland areas where temperatures above 35 or even 40 degrees are more common”, she reveals, listing districts such as Beja, Bragança, Castelo Branco, Évora and Guarda.

It may be that, in some of these territories, temperatures approach 40 ºC and a heat wave situation will be recorded , which occurs when the maximum remains five degrees above average for at least six consecutive days. “But, if they occur, they should be less prolonged waves [compared to the July heatwave]”, says Cristina Simões.

The IPMA meteorologist stresses that, according to forecasts, it is “unlikely that in August we will see temperatures as severe as those we saw in July”. “​Last month we saw some regions with almost 50 degrees in temperature. In August, or at least in these first days of August, we may have values ​​close to 40 degrees, which, at this time of year, is usual for certain areas of Beja and Évora, for example”, he reinforces.

July was a tough month (to say the least). The several days in a row of high temperatures, both in Portugal and in the rest of Europe, led to several records being broken. In the UK, thermometers crossed the 40 degree barrier for the first time. Here, the parish of Pinhão (Vila Real) reached 47 ºC for the first time, which was a record in the month of July for the region — and came close to the highest temperature ever recorded in Portugal: 47.3 degrees in the parish. Alentejo in Amareleja, in 2003.

The heat worsened the drought that was already ravaging the country. It also accentuated the risk of fire a risk that would materialize .

Ricardo Deus, IPMA’s climatologist, tells PÚBLICO that almost 60 Portuguese weather stations recorded temperatures above 40 degrees at least once in July. Altogether, temperature records were broken in almost 100 stations, including 40 absolute records and 60 records specifically for the month of July.

DO YOU HAVE A TRIP BOOKED? STRIKE NOTICE AT 10 AIRPORTS FROM 19TH TO 21ST AUGUST 2022

The protest demands the lifting of the suspension of contributions to the pension fund by Vinci, as well as the hiring of more human resources.

The unions SINTAC and SQAC announced a strike notice for the 10 airports under concession by Vinci Aeroportos between the 19th and 21st of August.

“Given the inflexibility of the proposals presented by ANA/VINCI over the last year and the attempt to reduce rights enshrined in the Company Agreement, attacking the rights that workers have achieved over decades, SINTAC and SQAC consider it urgent to end this blind policy and put an end to all this instability”, the unions say in a statement released.

According to the National Civil Aviation Workers (SINTAC) and Commercial Aviation Boards (SQAC) unions, at stake are the “claim for the lifting of the suspension of contributions to the pension fund by Vinci”, as well as the hiring “more human resources for airport operations, supervisors of rescue operations and maintenance technicians at the various national airports”.

The strike notice was issued after consultation with the workers and, according to the document, will cover “all workers at all ANA airports, concessioned by the Vinci Aeroportos group”, coming into force at 00:00 on August 19 and extending for a period of time until the end of August 21st.

SINTAC and SQAC point out that this warning comes “after several attempts, over the last few years, to prevent a strike from going ahead”.

The two unions then ask for the replacement of contributions to the workers’ pension fund, that Vinci Aeroportos “stop trying to destroy the rights obtained over decades by ANA workers”, increase “the salary of its workers with dignity, taking into account its results and inflation” and “take urgent measures to hire the missing human resources”.

COMMENT

Once we know more details and contingency plans we will publish

List of ANA/VINCI airportshttps://www.ana.pt/en/corporate/home