Work on Pisão dam suspended for second time – Portugal Resident

Work on constructing the Pisão dam in Crato, Portalegre district, has once again ground to a halt following a judicial decision.

The decision by the Central Administrative Court of the South (TCAS) upheld an appeal, lodged by four environmental associations, against the cancelling of their injunction (calling for the works to stop) by the Fiscal and Administrative Court of Castelo Branco (TAFCB).

Hélder Careto, of GEOTA (one of the environmental associations backing the injunction) has said he is “satisfied” with what is, in effect, a provisonary decision.

“What is important, at the moment, is that we have reached a definitive decision regarding the declaration of nullity of the DIA (the environmental impact declaration – a document necessary for large-scale projects affecting the environment to be able to move forwards),” he said.

CIMAA – the intermunicipal community of the Alto Alentejo, responsible for the works – has stressed that the court’s decision has “nothing to do with the merits of the project; how good it is, its legality”, but that there was “an error in the formula”, and for this reason, there needs to be a different path through the courts.

“The case now returns to the TAFCB where it will continue to be appreciated, with all the processual guarantees assured for all parts,” says CIMAA in a statement that goes on to state that “With the return of the case to the court of the first instance, the suspension of the DIA – the document that authorises execution of the works – once again comes into effect. Not because the court has ordered the works to stop, but because the last decision that allowed their resumption has been revoked, meaning the suspension that came into effect in September, 2025, has been reborn.”

For CIMAA, this step “is yet another painful and forced halt” for populations that wait, “with justified hope”, for this project to move forwards.

“We know that behind this hope there are families who depend on secure drinking water, farmers who see their fields drying up and young people who need jobs to remain in their home district,” says the statement.

The Pisão dam is another contentious project* that is considered ‘strategic’ for the water resilience of the Portalegre district. Its €220 million cost (very likely to increase to over €300 million) is being financed by the programme ‘Sustenável 2030’, and funded by the Cohesion Fund, following approval from Brussels. The dam will occupy an area of 10,000 hectares, and involve flooding the village of Pisão. Once complete, it will guarantee public water supply for the area, create new irrigation areas and ‘power the production of renewable energy’.

*Considering the villagers of Pisão have all been guaranteed alternative housing, why is this project upsetting environmentalists? 

Público explained the situation in October 2024 – setting out the irreversible ecological damages that will ensue, and the fact that this dam is not in any way ‘of the public interest’ that authorities like to say that it is.

Seven associations are behind this fight: WWF, Fapas, Geota, LPN, Quercus, SPEA and ZERO. Their arguments extend to the fact that the project does not even respect strategies or comply with legislation set out by the European Commission. But most importantly, they say it will “generate significant negative impacts, both in the construction and operation phases, with substantial impact on natural, heritage, ecological and socioeconomic values, many of which are of a unique and relevant nature (whether conservationist or historical).”

Among other damages, the construction phase will require the destruction of protected habitats, and the felling of more than 40,000 trees – including forests of holm and cork oaks. It will alter and interrupt the natural flow regimes of the Seda stream, convert dryland agricultural areas into irrigated land, and so incentivise water consumption where it is already scarce, “reducing biodiversity, artificialising land use, potentially contaminating soil and water, and destroying the village of Pisão”.

This is a bitter fight, in that CIMAA is really pitting the environment against local people, who are already exhausted by the situation of ‘not knowing what is going on’, and not being able to ‘move’ even if they wanted to, as until this wrangle is sorted, the value of their properties is zero.

The government, up until now, has shown its determination to move forwards with the project – indeed, when it was part of the PRR (Programme for Recovery and Resilience), Environment and Energy Minister Maria da Graça Carvalho said even legal appeals could have no suspensive effect. Now that the project is not part of the PRR, this does not apply.

Source material: LUSA/ Público