THE Portuguese government decided her ticket enforcement in providing water to the east of the Algrave tourist area, to the south, which is plagued by droughtwith the aim of reducing the use of groundwater by 15%.

“At the Odeleite and Belise dams, the use of water intended for agriculture and golf courses will be reduced by 20%,” Environment Minister Duarte Cordeiro announced at the end of last night’s meeting of the drought management committee.

In the event that gardens or golf courses have water reuse systems, this reduction will rise to 50%.

The Portuguese government also announced the establishment of an “action force” on the Algarve’s water resources, made up of members of the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) and the General Directorate of Agriculture to review water extraction permits in the area.

The government will have to figure out which permits can be revoked in order to reduce the use of water from the aquifer by 15 percent, Cordeiro stressed.

According to the government, 36% of Portugal’s territory is currently in a state of severe or extreme drought, mainly the Alentejo and Algarve regions in the south of the country. On Tuesday in the cabinet, Portugal formally submitted a request for assistance to Brussels to activate the European agricultural reserve, reminded the Minister of Agriculture Maria do Seu Antunes.

According to the European Copernicus Observatory, 91.9% of the Portuguese territory is affected by drought, of which 25.8% is on alert. The Iberian Peninsula is the most affected region of Europe by this phenomenon.