In view of the present drought situation here, I wonder how many people realise how much water evaporates from their swimming pools ?

Normally we only cover our pool in the winter months for heat preservation but, on the advice of our poolman, now cover it whenever we are not using it.

We were surprised to find that now we are topping up only about every ten days as opposed to previously when we topped up every other day !!

My apologies for duplicating this in different forums but I thought it worthwhile comment/advice.

Good to see there's still enough water to top the pools up - crisis ?? what crisis ?

Another fatuous comment from a non-registered 'guest' - obviously having not the faintest idea of life in this region.

Visitors demand pools. No pools = no visitors = economic disaster for villa/hotel owners.

Dried out pools collapse, particularly in hot weather, due to the lack of water pressure against the sides.

Filtration pumps are soon damaged when dried out.

At least I am trying to minimise water usage.

I just wish these anonymous people would stick to commenting on matters of which they have some knowledge !!!!!!!

I just wish these anonymous people would stick to commenting on matters of which they have some knowledge !!!!!!!

Fat chance!

Must be jolly annoying to be a villa owner whose rental income might be reduced because the swimming pool is a bit low.

Possibly a bit more annoying is farm crops down by 70% because they are dry, or having no water at all in your village, or 80% of your country being in severe drought http://www.terradaily.com/2005/05062804 ... 4xk46.html

Try to remember that there is a real world outside the villa/cheap gardener/cheap maid one.

Peter thats a real eye-opener! ...and thanks for putting it on!..
Forgive me for being a cynic...but when this was discussed before (quite a few weeks back)....
some on here told us that 'agriculture/farming' wasn't that important...
that 'tourism' is the only thing that matters!..
doesn't it matter that the farming industry is literally 'dying' on its feet from lack of water?

I think it probably does to the farmers, even if it doesn't to short sighted expats.

It's worthwhile searching for
portugal desertification
with google

That might affect rental income too.

Lets face reality, topping up a pool is the literal drop in the ocean what Portugal, Spain, France Italy and even parts of the UK face are the real effects of climate change.
Its not limited to Europe either vast areas of the US also face record high tempertures and drought.
In The EU as long as farmers can earn subsidies for growing the wrong crop in the wrong place ( products that demand scarce water ), for as long as so called environ - menatlists " delay the building of much needed reservoirs the problems will stay with us.

Tourism vs agriculture is a simple economic arguement.

I do not know if years ago if there was a thriving citrus industry in the algarve, or 100,s of hectares of tomatoes, courgettes etc under plastic in spain but I doubt it.

There was never enough water and probably never will be.

like your way of thinking OPti

hello optimistic,

Next time you are the supermarket, take a look at the labels. Most toms sold in England come from Spain or the Canaries. English grown ones are fairly late in the season.

One pool is no problem, it becomes one when lots of people do it (hope this is not too obvious). It's OK if I have a big car, not if you have one too.

Do you mean the reservoir in the east of Portugal, Gu... something? That's like a really big and really expensive experiment. Reservoirs only work if you can fill them up, and you can't take too much flow from a river, it causes all sorts of repercussions downstream. Hopefully it will tiddle down this winter and fill the aquifers again.

I thought I was making a helpful and useful suggestion for saving water- it is estimated the average pool loses around 500 litres a day through evaporation - which could be used (Mr. pm) more usefully by the farmers.

It might be small fry, but multiply this painfree saving method by the thousands of pools and it must make a significant difference.

If we all used, on first sight pointless, methods of saving water such as putting a stone in the w.c. cistern, showering instead of bathing, using water previously used for such things as washing up on the garden, washing cars with a bucket of water rather than a hose - multiplied by the number of people living here - then the saving would not be insignificant.

If you are going to have a go at anyone, aim at the golf courses use of fresh water, particularly at present when it seems to be too hot even for the keenest golfers judging by the small numbers who seem to be going round.

P.S. As a further contribution to saving Algarvian water I will only drink beer brewed with North Portugal water tonight in the Anteak

You are quite right our toms do come from spain, as do our lettuce, and what has happened due due to their being grown under plastic in virtual desert areas requiring massive irrigation??

A few weeks ago bacteria causing stomach bugs was found on some spanish produce because the farmers lacking water have resorted to useing the outfall from sewage plants.

We consumers are the problem, we want fresh vegatables out of season,from areas where they do not naturally grow.
The big commercial operations then take over.

My original arguement relating to the algarve is that without massive investment in new water rescources, reservoirs, recycling, desalination there is simply not enough natural water to satisfy the needs of " un economic, subsidised agriculture ( not that traditional to the algarve ) and the combination of tourism/ northern european relocators.

A choice will have to be made otherwise the algarve could become a dusty backwater with unhappy farmers, expats and those few in tourism who can still make a living.

roy4eyes you are quite right, all you can do is do your bit and hope others do likewise.
It's bad enough in Sussex, our grass is now completely brown. I think that is great as I don't have to cut it. The crops round here are all ripe now, I suspect yield will be down.

500 litres a day is huge isn't it.

I'd heard that about the Spanish farmers, but couldn't find a reference or remember where I had read it

Yes Roy and pm, I think it is better to do your bit, rather than do nothing and wait for governments to tell you what you should be doing. I always try to use as little water as possible when cleaning my teeth, showering, flushing the toilet and only using the washing machine when I have a full load and not for one pair of my pants! I have to say from my experience holidaymakers in villas are often the worst culprits of washing machine overuse. Let's all try to save a bit shall we?

Mind you Roy I think bathing in that beer is a bit much you know