“We are doing well. We don't have water to waste, (...) we are starting September, and in fact we are very well prepared for next year,” said Pimenta Machado, in Bragança, on the sidelines of the signing of the protocol between the APA and the municipality of Bragança.

The president of the APA highlighted the lack of water in several countries of the European Union, which are “literally distressed,” but assured that Portugal is bucking this trend, due to last winter, with several storms, which, despite the many damages, were beneficial for water storage in the country's reservoirs.

“In Portugal, we started a very difficult year, with this climate that affected us all. January and February [recorded] a lot of rain, a lot of water, a lot of flooding, but there was one good thing: we filled the dams,” he stressed.

The president of the APA had already revealed, in May, that the reservoirs were “in the best situation ever”, with an average storage of 92%, giving as an example the Bravura reservoir, in the Algarve, “which the Portuguese know for not having water” and which was at “99%”.