Portugal wastes water equivalent to 185 Olympic swimming pools every day, warns report – Portugal Resident

Portugal is wasting so much water every day that it could fill the equivalent of 185 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

In a country that is forever warning its citizens to ‘save water’, experts lift the lid on why: it is not because of a ‘water shortage’, per se, it is because infrastructure and investment have simply not kept up with the times.

The recent supply crisis in Almada is symptomatic of a much deeper national problem, according to an investigation by Expresso newspaper.

The report, drawing on data from Portugal’s water and waste services regulator ERSAR, shows that despite a decade of improvements, more than a quarter of all water entering municipal distribution systems is still lost before it reaches consumers.

In 2024, 26.5% of water supplied through Portugal’s municipal networks was “non-revenue water”—water that is produced but never billed – largely because of leaks and bursts in ageing pipelines. While this marks an improvement from 30.1% in 2015, the reduction of just 3.6 percentage points over 10 years is being described as insufficient given mounting pressure from climate change and recurring droughts.

ERSAR estimates that Portugal lost 169.3 million cubic metres of water last year through real losses in local distribution systems—enough to fill around 185.5 Olympic swimming pools every day, or nearly eight every hour.

The figures come as thousands of residents in Almada, south of Lisbon, have experienced repeated water shortages and pressure cuts in recent weeks.

ERSAR president Vera Eiró acknowledges that Portugal still faces a “significant margin for improvement”, although she said progress has been made in recent years.

She attributed much of the continuing problem to ageing infrastructure and chronically low rates of network renewal, but said some water utilities had demonstrated that sustained investment and improved monitoring could dramatically reduce losses.

Portugal’s national strategy for water supply, wastewater and stormwater management foresees €5.5 billion of investment by the end of the decade, with around half earmarked for rehabilitating water networks. The aim is to increase annual renewal rates to between 1.5% and 2%, reversing decades of underinvestment.

ERSAR estimates that eliminating 80% of real water losses would save around 135 million cubic metres of water every year while generating annual savings of approximately €74 million.

Former ERSAR president Orlando Borges argues that one of the sector’s biggest structural weaknesses has been the weakening of the regulator’s powers over the past decade.

He said many municipalities have failed to recover the true costs of operating water and sanitation services, leaving insufficient funding for maintenance and investment.

Diogo Faria Oliveira, president of ERSAR’s Consultative and Tariff Council, warns that many municipalities continue to replace less than 0.3% of their water networks each year—a pace that would require more than 1,000 years to renew the entire system.

International best practice, he said, points to annual renewal rates of around 2%, allowing networks to be replaced over roughly 50 years.

The report highlights stark contrasts between water utilities.

Porto’s municipal utility renews around 1.7% of its network annually and records losses of 12.3%, while Lisbon’s EPAL reports losses of 13.4%.

By contrast, Almada’s network renewal averaged just 0.36% over the past decade.

Even so, ERSAR classifies both Lisbon and Almada as having “unsatisfactory performance” because of high daily real water losses per service connection—197 litres per day in Lisbon and 284 litres in Almada, both well above the national average of 118 litres and the regulator’s benchmark of 100 litres for good-quality service.

Outside the major urban centres, Marinha Grande presents a different challenge. Despite investing heavily in renewing its network, with renewal rates exceeding 2% in recent years, the municipality still recorded non-revenue water of 41.5% in 2024. Local officials say part of that figure reflects water consumed in public parks, schools and gardens where no meters are installed.

Beyond infrastructure, the Almada crisis has revived debate over groundwater management.

Several experts interviewed by Expresso argue that Portugal should follow Spain’s example by gradually ending private ownership of groundwater in areas where public water supplies are at risk.

Under current Portuguese law, landowners generally own the groundwater beneath their properties, subject to licensing. The Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) receives more than 20,000 applications each year to extract groundwater but faces difficulties monitoring how much water is actually pumped.

APA president José Pimenta Machado said the issue could be addressed in the forthcoming revision of Portugal’s Water Law, with a gradual transition towards greater public control helping improve monitoring, enforcement and long-term management.

“In the 20th century, the goal was to bring water to every tap,” he said. “In the 21st century, the goal is to ensure it continues to reach them.”

The debate is particularly urgent because of the strategic importance of the Tejo-Sado Left Bank aquifer—the largest in Portugal—which supplies around one million people as well as major agricultural and industrial users.

According to an APA assessment cited by Expresso, monitoring carried out in May showed that around half of the monitoring stations within the aquifer had groundwater levels below the 20th percentile – indicating that water levels had begun falling again after several months of recovery, particularly in the Sado basin.

Experts interviewed by the newspaper argue that stronger monitoring of the aquifer and the creation of larger regional water management systems will be essential if Portugal is to avoid more supply crises like the one that has affected Almada.

Source: Expresso