Water reserves in the Portuguese municipality of Almada have risen to 78% of average capacity, prompting local authorities to ease scheduled supply interruptions that had been imposed to manage shortages.
The Almada Municipal Council announced that planned water cuts will no longer take place on weekends. On remaining days, interruptions will be shortened to a five-hour window between 01:00 and 06:00, a reduction from previous restrictions.
The improvement follows infrastructure investment by the council, which brought two new boreholes online, injecting an additional 120 cubic metres of water per hour into the public network. The reinforcement has helped stabilise reserves and allowed officials to begin gradually rolling back emergency measures put in place as drought conditions strained local supplies.