ERSARA allocates 133 thousand Euros to support managing entities promoting sustainable water use
The Regional Secretariat for Energy, Environment and Tourism announced that the Entity for the Regulation of Water and Waste Services of the Azores (ERSARA) has already allocated 113 thousand Euros to support managing entities promoting the sustainable use of water for human consumption by measuring the water balance, through programmes aimed at correcting dysfunctions in water systems. The measure also intends to improve the performance of managing entities as well as to improve the quality of the services provided to citizens.
this context, two support programmes have been created to provide water supply systems for human consumption in the Azores with the necessary equipment to measure the water balance more accurately, particularly regarding the calculation of water abstracted in terms of actual consumption and losses, thus encouraging a more sustainable use of this resource.
The financial aid, in the form of a non-repayable grant, supported in the first phase, between 2017 and 2019, the acquisition of flow meters to be installed at the exit of the reservoirs, covering 10 entities. It corresponded to an investment of 98 thousand Euros.
From 2019 and until the end of 2021, ERSARA allocates an annual amount of 100 thousand Euros to support the acquisition of drinking water meters, namely remote reading equipment (telemetry), and the support may be increased for entities that have not yet measured the water consumed.
Seven entities were supported in the first year of implementation of the programme for the acquisition of drinking water meters, which corresponds to an allocation of 35 thousand Euros.