Hi all,

I just noticed this headline news article on the Yahoo frontpage today. This will be our first full year in the Algarve, have any of you exerienced a drought in the Algarve before ? If so what were the consequences ?

We don't have a bore hole the water is actually pumped in from another farmer


Portugal facing worst drought in over a decade: meteorology office

Tue Jan 4, 3:46 PM ET Science - AFP



LISBON (AFP) - Many regions of Portugal, including the southernmost province of Algarve, the country's main tourism center, are facing their worst drought in over a decade, the national meteorology office said.

Water levels at dams and lakes are at their lowest levels in the Algarve, the southern province of Alentejo and the northwestern province of Minho, since the early 1990s, said a meteorologist with the office, Fatima Espirito Santo.


"We need January to be extremely rainy, something that only happens in 20 percent of all years, in order to bring water levels to normal," she told state radio RDP.


The national weather office forecast sees no chance of rain until at least January 15.


In October Environment Minister Luis Guedes threatened the government would ration water in the Algarve, which is home to scores of golf courses, if the province did not receive enough rain by the end of 2004.


Regards

Tim

yes read this weeks resident...very serious..with a bit of luck those green golf courses will go brown

That will definately help the problem - brown golf courses = severe reduction in feb/may tourism = less tourists using water = no drought

On the other hand, severe reduction in tourists also equals less money spent in restaurants and bars, ie more unemployment, but who cares - they may not have a job and therefore cannot afford bottled water but at least there will be more natural water for washing their cars and mopeds - assuming they can still afford them

Golf bashing season seems to have started early this year?

Im a little troubled about the negative observations regularly made on this site against the golf courses in the region.

Regardless of personal views on the game (I will confess to being a "lapsed" golfer) it remains that these courses are an integral part of the tourism "attractions" of the Algarve and tourism is already suffering enough through other factors as it is.

Anything like water problems that restrict or damage ANY of the area's attractions can hardly be expected to add to the recovery prospects and the current (and projected) water problems will end up doing no one any good.

It has to be said that the region has often mismanaged its basic industry but this sort of "yah boo" approach is hardly constructive.

So where do the courses get the water from if a bore hole dries up? I don't see any other source do you?

I was quite concerned last summer that our wells were very low and have been assuming that we will need to drill a borehole as the water table seems to be dropping so quickly.
(sign of wealth, two wells)

“Lookout fuh rain, rain, rain.

“When da ducks quack loud an’ da peacocks cry,
An’ da far off hills seems to be right nigh,
Prepare fuh rain, rain, rain!

“When da ole cat on da hearth wid her velvet paws
’Gins to wipin’ over her whiskered jaws,
Sho’ sign o’ rain, rain, rain!

“When da frog’s done changed his yaller vest,
An’ in his brown suit he is dressed,
Mo’ rain, an’ still mo’ rain!

“When you notice da air it stare’s stock still,
An’ da blackbird’s voice it gits so awful shrill,
Dat am da time fuh rain.

“When yo’ dog quits bones an’ begins to fas’,
An’ when you see him eatin’; he’s eatin’ grass:
Shoes’, trues’, cert’nes sign ob rain!”

peterm wrote:So where do the courses get the water from if a bore hole dries up? I don't see any other source do you?

I was quite concerned last summer that our wells were very low and have been assuming that we will need to drill a borehole as the water table seems to be dropping so quickly.
(sign of wealth, two wells)

Peter, if the water table keeps dropping, you may have drill more than once...and if the Water Table keeps dropping enough, you may find out that the old West Texas saying.....

"Whiskey is for drinking, and Water is for fighting"

.....is not some dumb Texas joke.

if you don know ijane about golf and its damage to the environment then scroll back to last years debates....i am afraid if graham thinks the choice is between "tourism" and water to drink to sustain human and animal life then I will pick the latter.

Ref guest comments about my apparent lack of knowledge on the environmental impacts of golf courses - there are two sides to that particular argument and BOTH think they are right - there is no need for patronising comments. Also I would guess that some form of impact assessment was carried out before their building - however sketchy

The point really is - as I said before - the courses exist and are an integral part of the regions tourism - perhaps guest wants them all bulldozed and a return to subsistence farming and fishing only ???

Possibly that is attractive as an ideal for some but unlikely to happen so we must try to live in the real world

I am not sure if the 'debate' here is with one guest or two - the second post is simply daft - no one in their right minds would suggest that if the choice was between a golf course and life then the golf course should win, but as I understand the term 'rationing' in the opening post that is not actually the choice that has to be made.

My issue is with the first post - why should it be 'lucky' for the golf courses to go brown? - surely if good luck were involved there would be plenty of water for all? Wishing the golf courses to be destroyed just demonstrates a petty mind that is unable to accept that others sometimes enjoy what you do not.

Do you also believe that the water parks and all swimming pools should be closed down (evaporation accounts for a significant loss over such a large surface area), and how about the bowls greens, parks, public flower beds and the like?

The water situation in the Algarve is a serious problem that merits serious debate, and this is not helped by such unconstructive and frankly unrealistic views.

as was mentioned last year by one person..ONE ALGARVE GOLF COURSE PER DAY USES enough water equal to over 18000 people...believe me i do not dislike golf..just build the courses in places where they can be sustained without robbing every drop of water left in the country

the problem is thatr they are built not really for the those who play but for real estae development that goes with them and then in turn the charges for managing them...

Before we again argue the point of smacking a ball across a lawn with a stick, I would like to move the discussion back to the actual problem - the total amount of water that is consumed by the Algarve as a whole.
Isnt the adequate question:
"How many golf courses are enough for the Algarve?"

I mean, we have around 30 courses, give or take. How much "attraction value" can one of these courses possibly have?

I would push for a solution that has already been on the table more than once - place a water meter on each bore hole and charge for the resource that is being consumed. It seems fair to me, that if somebody (private or buisness) consumes a natural resource, they should pay for it like everybody else does.

This would also force developers to put a whole new calculation on rentability and possibly end the boom of golf courses (yes, I think that we have enough) across the Algarve.

Gambrinus - I think I would have to agree with you that there are probably enough golf courses, and I definately agree that there is a wider picture to be addressed.

It is a bit of a chicken and egg scenario - Pestana courses were built 13 years ago when there was nowhere near as many private villas in the area, so there was probably enough water at the time for both individuals and the golf courses. However, the golf courses (and of course other factors!) have made Carvoeiro a very attractive place for second home owners, with the subsequent huge increase in villas and appartments with permanently irrigated gardens.

With hindsight, maybe the huge increase in private villas (and subsequent water useage) should have been envisaged when permission to build the golf courses was granted, but I feel it is unfair to attribute all the problems to golf, when in fact it is a combination of many factors that have contributed to the current reported shortages.

I think charging for extraction of water from boreholes is a sound idea in principal, but the political backlash of charging for something that has been traditionally free would be horrendous, as would the cost of monitoring useage. I also wonder if it would actually make that much difference to consumption since I believe most golf courses take great care to ensure that they use the minimum amount of water that they can and therefore do not have much scope for economies. It would be acceptable in my view if the funds raised were used to examine and introduce new ways of collecting and keeping water (ie desalination, new reservoirs etc), but unfortunately I have little faith that this would happen.

Perhaps the planners will see this as a 'wake up call' and look to more issues than just expected tax revenues when agreeing future building proposals (of any kind, not just golf) - but I think that this is an issue brought about by the result of modern living and is not restricted to the Algarve, and hopefully one that will be resolved soon.

Thanks for returning to the point G - could not agree more about the number of golf courses - already too many as can easily be seen from a quick "visual" - over recent weeks I have only really seen one course (the Laguna at Vilamoura) with anything like what you would call "enough" players on it at any one time.

I am firmly convinced of the need to more properly regulate the planning and development process to remove the unnecessary growth in this (and other) areas.

The region's disproportionate demands on a scarce and precarious resource MUST conflict with the desire to extend tourism as things currently stand and some better management of ALL resources is essential.

The proposition regarding metering boreholes meets with my agreement (but then I dont have one anyway).

The debate in this area could easily extend also to use of power and the infrastructure supporting it (this has also of course already arisen elsewhere on this site - eg air conditioning systems, pool heaters etc etc and does not need resurrecting at this stage).

At the risk of being repetitious - proper management of ALL resources and development planning is the only way forward.

Going back to the number of golf courses it would be naive to expect "business" people to close some on the basis of their disproportionate demands on water supply - all we can hope is that the economics of the market will eventually force supply to a proper level.

As my final word at this stage - while I agree that the golf courses are probably the biggest factor in this issue there are also many other wasteful practices which require consideration.

So there is certainly a whole lot that can be done locally, the question remains, do local authorities see the need to act on the current conditions or does it have to get worse?

That said it did occur to me at one stage, that a lot of the local farmers have been forced into cultivating crops that are not in keeping with the natural sorrounding the Algarve has to offer. Imo, this was partially due to the facts that the excellent produce was not according to the norms established by the EU and could not be sold on the european market.
On the other hand, there was a lot more money to be made from other crops.

Sunflower and oranges were subsequently replaced by rice and soy resulting in a disproportional increase in the consumption of natural resources.

This may not be an unusual situation, but it does throw up a lot of problems when water is in short supply.