# Alqueva Dam water supply charges and opting out



## Aden'Soph (Aug 25, 2007)

Has anyone experience of this ? 

Alqueva Dam water supply charges

A recent letter from EDIA tells us they plan to charge us for a water supply that we are not connected to but which crosses our land ! Also something about Conservaçao! 

or is this yet another example of an 'opt out' scheme that no one told us about so we never knew we needed to opt out ?


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## canoeman (Mar 3, 2011)

Have you had it translated?


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## Ingles (Feb 2, 2009)

Aden'Soph said:


> Has anyone experience of this ?
> 
> Alqueva Dam water supply charges
> 
> ...


Conservaçao = Maintenance 
This could have 2 meanings & unless it's possiable to read the full text one can only surmise the below
1 They are asking for your permmision to enter your property to Maintain the Pipe Line
2 You as the owners of the Property are expected to pay towards the cost of Maintaining of the Pipe Line


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## Aden'Soph (Aug 25, 2007)

Ingles is spot on with No2. But this topic is more relevant to others in this situation or a similar one. What are you rights - if any - here when being asked to pay for a service you are not connected to?

We are told by EDIA / Alqueva to write a letter to their President to* 'explain' our objections to paying for their laying a water pipe that we have no use for through our front garden*. No law specifies what criteria he will use to decide whether to let us off paying and as we can assume we did not go to the same school ... that option is out. 

If writing in the UK we would include the obvious point that, at no time, has anyone taken the trouble to discuss with us the route this pipe as to take and why it entirely avoids the very few other (PT) houses within the nearest 5kms ... yet targets us ! Were these PT's vizinho's approached first so that they could opt-out their houses ?? 

More to the point almost no-one in this area has any use for this water supply. They are smallholders, low intensity olive or sun flower growers who tell us this is all for the big farmers... so presumably they do not intend paying. 

How will we find out who is paying and who is not ?


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## canoeman (Mar 3, 2011)

I would think that it's back to basics, before you write.

When plans where passed
Route of pipe 
Do, did they require permissions from landowners
Compensation, rent to landowners
Who is the water for

Without some of these basics answered, you have little hope of structuring a letter, appealing etc. as th EDIA goes back to 1993/5 is this something that might have been decided and agreed to with previous owners of property? or something that you should have been made aware of when you purchased?


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