PORTUGAL: PORTUGUESE P.M. ANTONIO GUERRES OFFICALLY CLOSES NEW FLOODGATE OF ALQUEVA DAM WHICH WILL FLOOD VILLAGE OF LUZ FORCING RESIDENTS TO MOVE

Record ID: 841606

  • Title: PORTUGAL: PORTUGUESE P.M. ANTONIO GUERRES OFFICALLY CLOSES NEW FLOODGATE OF ALQUEVA DAM WHICH WILL FLOOD VILLAGE OF LUZ FORCING RESIDENTS TO MOVE
  • Date: 8th February 2002
  • Summary: (L!1)ALQUEVA, SOUTH OF PORTUGAL (FEBRUARY 8, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) SCU /SMV (SOUNDBITE)(PORTUGUESE) PRIME MINISTER ANTONIO GUTERRES TAKING A WALKIE-TALKIE TO GIVE THE ORDER FOR WORKERS TO START CLOSING THE FLOODGATES SAYING " "It is Antonio Guterres to tell you to start the operation that will fill the dam." WIDE OF GUESTS APPLAUDING SMV (SOUNDBITE) (Portuguese) GU
  • Embargoed: 23rd February 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ALQUEVA, SOUTH OF PORTUGAL, PORTUGAL
  • City:
  • Country: Portugal
  • Topics: Environment,Quirky,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVA499RZXWR7Y0ERU7039E98YHZA
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Prime Minister Antonio Guterres presided over the ceremony marking the closing of the Alqueva dam floodgates which will submerge the village of Luz, forcing its 400 inhabitants to reluctantly move to a replica of the town a few kilometres away.
    Portugal began a controversial bid on Friday (February 8) to build Europe's biggest artificial lake and fulfil a decades-old dream to irrigate its historically parched and poverty-stricken south.
    Prime Minister Antonio Guterres officially closed the floodgates at the 1.7-billion U.S. dollar Alqueva dam on the Guadiana river, which is set to flood a valley and cover an area of 250 square kilometres (96.5 square miles) within two years.
    Alqueva project, which was first designed in 1957, has drawn resentment from many residents of the nearby Aldeia da Luz, who will be forced by rising waters to leave their lifelong homes in the Village of Light, as it is called in Portuguese.
    But the villagers will be rehoused and the government has stressed the need to build thousands of kilometres of pipes over the next 20 years to irrigate up to 110,000 square kilometres in the Alentejo region.
    A strategic water reserve of 4.15 billion cubic would also buffer Alentejo farmers from frequent droughts and make them less dependent on scratching a living from what wheat, olives and vines they can grow in the regions arid soil.
    For the first time, Alqueva would allow Alentejo farmers to grow pricey fruit and horticultural produce, much of which Portugal currently has to import from Spain.
    Environmental groups, who have for years protested that flooding the valley 160 km (100 miles) southeast of Lisbon will strip Portugal of much of its key flora and fauna.
    Environmental group Quercus has said the Alqueva reservoir will drown half of Portugal's holm oak groves, will disrupt river life by making the Guadiana saltier, and threatens the habitat of the few remaining Iberian lynxes.
    For many environmentalists, Alqueva is also a white elephant dreamt up by long-dead dictator Antonio Salazar, long before Portuguese reality changed when it joined the European Union in 1986.
    Farmers now enjoying EU subsidies have to limit output of traditional irrigation crops like maize, sunflowers or rice.
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