The Municipality of Vila Real de Santo António is one of the three municipalities in the Algarve with the highest water efficiency, with an unbilled water percentage of 18.7%, according to the latest official data from the regulator. This value has decreased to around 17.5% in 2023.
Over the past five years, AdVRSA – Águas de Vila Real de Santo António (AdVRSA) has been investing in measures that contribute to greater water efficiency in the municipality, resulting in a consistent reduction of more than 10% in water losses in just five years.
“The work of optimizing and rationalizing consumption has always been promoted by AdVRSA and the Municipality, which allowed us to significantly reduce water losses in the network in a short period. For this reason, we know that today, reducing consumption will be more challenging than in other municipalities in the Algarve,” says Gonçalo Pacheco, General Director of AdVRSA.
“For example, according to recent data on municipal consumption, it may seem that we haven’t made progress compared to other municipalities, but this is because we didn’t realize the importance of preserving water resources only recently, with concerns about drought. Our work started as soon as AdVRSA began its operations, which is why our results are already more consolidated,” explains the responsible official.
Since 2019, the Aquapor group’s concession has been implementing a set of measures aimed at optimizing water management and preserving this limited natural resource.
In this sense, AdVRSA has been making various operational and efficiency improvement investments, such as the creation of flow and pressure measurement and control zones, active campaigns for detecting real losses (with an active and continuous leak detection mechanism), replacement of residential and non-residential meters, installation of meters in all green spaces in the municipality, and the maintenance and sealing of fire markers.
AdVRSA has also invested in technological innovation to optimize water management, such as the implementation of a Network Performance Management software designed for the swift detection and repair of leaks, and the implementation of domestic telemetry.
AdVRSA’s commitment to water efficiency also extends to environmental awareness campaigns, such as the one currently running with the theme “Imagine opening the tap and having no water. If we don’t act now, this will be the reality,” which aims to promote responsible water use in the region.
The concern with the value and preservation of water resources is central to all of AdVRSA’s activities, which has led to a reduction in water losses by more than 10 percentage points in just five years of operation.
