Portugal’s Ministry of Agriculture is to launch a public tender for an initial feasibility study for a project, involving projected investment of €4.5 billion, to transfer water from the River Tagus to the West, Ribatejo and Setúbal regions for irrigation of farmland and other purposes.

The ministry has decided to take the lead despite the fact that the project was submitted by civil society and has no guaranteed sources of financing, and that it is not known if there is sufficient water, what the cost-benefit ratio of the project is and whether it is viable from an environmental point of view. The group of specialists who put forward the project this month created an association, + TEJO, whose declared aim is the promotion of the sustainable development of the Tagus, Jorge Froes, the agronomist and hydraulic engineer who leads it told Lusa.