The Regional Secretary for Agriculture and the Environment defended in Horta that public water management policies in the Azores must take into account "the specificities of the archipelago, such as territorial discontinuity, biophysical balance and economic dependence of certain production sectors."
 
Luís Neto Viveiros spoke at the Legislative Assembly during the presentation of the diploma establishing the rules and criteria for the delimitation of protection perimeters of surface and groundwater abstraction for human consumption in the Azores with the aim of ensuring the quality of water abstraction for public supply.
 
"As a fundamental resource for life to exist, water requires a responsible management, both in terms of preserving its quality and ensuring its safety for consumers," the government official said, adding that it is necessary to "find solutions properly adjusted to the reality" of the Azorean islands and their "specific circumstances"
 
In this context, Luís Neto Viveiros stressed that the application of the method stipulated in the current national legal framework results in protection perimeters of water abstraction that "are clearly out of touch with the specificities" of the Azorean islands. Moreover, these areas "oversized compared to the requirements for the safeguarding of water quality for public consumption."
 
Therefore, the Regional Government proposed a solution that safeguards "the clear protection of quality and safety of abstraction water" as well as "the delimitation of protection perimeters based on geological, hydrogeological and economic criteria, taking into consideration the specific feature and conditions of groundwater or surface water abstraction."
 
The Regional Secretary for Agriculture and the Environment also stressed that the adjustment introduced to the fixed radius for the delimitation of the immediate protection zone ensures "adequate protection of water resources, while releasing land for the development of other activities, including agriculture." According to him, these areas are no longer forbidden; they will become conditioned, pursuant to the terms established for intermediate areas."
 
Luís Neto Viveiros also stressed that adopted solution "aims to achieve a balance between the restrictions on property rights and the obligations that must be met by the entity responsible for water abstraction in the cases when expropriation does not occur, such the sealing, signalling and cleaning of the areas adjacent to immediate protection zones."
 
"This solution safeguards the interests of owners wishing to maintain full possession of their land plots, since it is not legitimate to impose on them the burden of the sealing, signalling and maintenance of these areas," said the government official.
 
For the Regional Secretary for Agriculture and the Environment, the legislation approved today is intended to ensure a "balanced relation between the assurance of water safety and quality and better land use, which is crucial to the Region's economic development."