Coordination by Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) – with technical contributions from DGADR, regional water authorities, municipal councils, and tourism stakeholders (2022)
The Regional Water Efficiency Plan for the Algarve (PREHAlg) addresses increasing drought severity and water scarcity in southern Portugal, aiming to ensure long-term water sustainability through integrated planning across the region’s key sectors: agriculture, urban supply, and tourism—including golf. The report outlines short-, medium-, and long-term measures for managing water availability under pressure from climate change and rising demand.
Data from 2019 show golf courses in the Algarve consumed significant volumes of water, primarily sourced from aquifers already showing quantitative and chemical degradation. The plan highlights structural inefficiencies and calls for immediate improvements in irrigation efficiency, water reuse, and drought-resilient landscape design across the tourism sector. For golf, this includes tighter abstraction limits, infrastructure upgrades, and monitoring through performance indicators.
The plan incorporates legal frameworks, climate projections, and stakeholder feedback to prioritize interventions such as modernizing irrigation systems, expanding treated wastewater reuse, and implementing drought contingency protocols. The PREHAlg is presented as a model of multi-sector coordination, emphasizing that safeguarding water resources in the Algarve will depend on reducing consumption, adapting land uses, and strengthening institutional governance.
