Government acknowledges severe, extreme drought

Portugal’s minister of agriculture, Maria do Céu Antunes, said on Thursday in parliament that she had signed an order recognising severe or extreme drought in almost the whole country and allowing the activation of support measures.

“I signed yesterday [Wednesday] the order recognising the existence of severe and extreme drought” in almost the whole country, she said, in a debate that also included the participation of the minister of environment and climate action, João Pedro Matos Fernandes, on the drought in Portugal.

According to the minister, the signing of the order “allows us to ensure significant measures” to deal with the effects of the drought that affects farmers.

Asked by Lusa, an official source at the ministry of agriculture said that the order should be published today or Friday but will take effect on the date of its signing.

The Portuguese Institute of Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) announced on February 21 that more than 90% of the territory was in severe or extreme drought on 15 February, indicating a new worsening of the meteorological drought situation in the country.

The latest drought bulletin indicates values of percentage of water in the soil below normal throughout the territory, with the Northeast and South regions reaching values below 20%.

When MPs asked about the delay in the dispatch, Maria do Céu Antunes pointed out that it takes two months of drought to define it as “severe” or “extreme”, which only happened at the end of February.

On Wednesday, an extraordinary Council of Ministers of the European Union’s member states was held. According to the minister, Portugal asked for “exceptional and temporary measures” to address the impacts of drought, increased production costs and the war in Ukraine.

Asked repeatedly by several MPs about the amount of support, when it arrives and who it is for, Maria do Céu Antunes said she also hoped to have obtained answers at Wednesday’s meeting, so that she could present them today, but the European Commission has postponed the answers to Monday.

“The European Commission, yesterday [Wednesday] in an extraordinary Council of Ministers, committed itself until Monday of next week to have financial and technical measures to help farmers to have a full response to the problems,” she said.

“The support that we hope to give – cheque in hand – […] will be given as soon as possible, we have the measure designed, but we are waiting for authorisation from the European Commission for this purpose,” added Maria do Céu Antunes.