ERSAR – The Water and Waste Services Regulation Authority http://www.ersar.pt/en

Organization

The organizational and functional model of ERSAR is composed by the Board of Directors, by the operational services (Waste Systems Department, Water Systems Department, Contract Management Department, Direct Management Department, Legal Department and Quality Department.

The technical and administrative support services are made up of the Administrative, Financial and Human Resources Department and the Technology and Information Management Department.

The organization chart is completed with the advisory board and the statutory auditor (both required by law).

Historical Evolution

There are four relevant periods in the regulation of the water and waste sector in :

2000 – 2003: IRAR was the regulation authority for water and waste services of a growing number of concessionaires. At the end of 2003, there were about 50 regulated operators.

2004 – 2009: Besides regulating these 50 operators, IRAR assumed the role of national authority for drinking water quality. In this respect, IRAR had more 400 operators to regulate.

Since 2009: ERSAR replaced IRAR and is now the regulation authority for the entire water and waste sector, with over 500 regulated operators, keeping its mission as national authority for drinking water quality.

In 2014, ERSAR became an independent body with more autonomy and strengthened sanction and regulation powers.

Purpose of Regulation

Regulation has as main objective the protection of users’ and consumers’ interests by promoting the quality of service provided by operators and ensuring socially acceptable pricing, since water and waste services must have the following characteristics: essentialness, indispensability, universal access, equity, reliability and cost-efficiency associated with the quality of service.

However, this should be done considering the financial viability and the legitimate interests of the operators, regardless of the responsibility for its provision or management model, and also considering the promotion of the rest of the economic sector, through the reinforcement of the business framework while also contributing to the application of the policies defined by the government.

ERSAR is guided by the principles of competence, fairness, impartiality and transparency, comprehensively considering the technical, financial, legal, environmental, public health and social ethics, which should characterize the water and waste services.

Scope of regulation

ERSAR must assure two distinct, although complementary duties:

- Regulation authority for the drinking water supply services, urban wastewater management services and municipal waste management services;

- National authority for drinking water quality.

Concerning the first duty, ERSAR, aims to ensure the quality of the services rendered by drinking water supply systems, urban wastewater and municipal waste systems, supervising the creation, execution, management and operation of those systems. ERSAR also ensures the stability of the sector and the financial sustainability of these systems. As a regulator, ERSAR has to act over all 500 operators of the water and waste sector.

In 2003, ERSAR was nominated the national authority for drinking water quality. Currently, the regulation of drinking water quality includes all 400 drinking water supply operators.

Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) https://www.apambiente.pt/index.php?ref=x178

The Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) is a new public institute, within the scope of the Portuguese Ministry of the Environment, Territory Management and Energy. Our mission is to propose, develop and monitor, on an integrated and participated manner, the public policies for the environment and sustainable development, in close cooperation with other sectoral policies and public and private entities. APA counts nowadays with more than 800 highly skilled employees and consultants.

Organization

Areas of Intervention: • Air • Water • Waste • Climate changes • Chemicals • Noise • Protection of ozone layer • Genetic Modified Organisms • Sustainable development • Citizen participation • Environmental assessments • Environmental economics and green growth • Environmental risks

Strategic goals: To increase the level of protection, recovery and enhancement of ecosystem To increase the level of protection of people and goods in risk situation To improve the knowledge and information about the environment To reinforce public participation and to ensure the involvement of the institutions To guarantee the excellence of performing in all assignments

APA in the international fora APA works in close cooperation with the European Environment Agency, mainly through the EIONET network, for which it is the National Focal Point (NFP). As a NFP, APA is responsible for developing and maintaining a national network of reference organisations and experts working and researching environment and sustainable development issues, identifying national sources of information, collecting data and information resulting from monitoring activities and, finally, supporting the EEA in communicating its activities in Portugal. Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil (LNEC) http://www.lnec.pt/en/

MISSION

LNEC's mission is to undertake, coordinate and promote scientific research and technological development, aiming to the continuous improvement and the good practice of Civil Engineering.

It is also LNEC’s responsibility to pursue the public interest, by providing services of Science and Technology to public and private, national and foreign entities, contributing to innovation, dissemination of Knowledge and technology transfer.

It is also LNEC’s mission to assist the Government in the pursuit of public policies, and to provide technical support to the entities that constitute the Authority in the various sectors of Public Administration, in particular with regard to:

o Quality and safety of works, persons and assets; o Protection and requalification of the natural and built heritage; and o Modernisation and technological innovation, particularly in the building sector.

Since its early days, LNEC has been establishing networks and partnerships with national and international entities, giving it the ability to promote and foster the globalization of Science and Knowledge, positioning LNEC as an important partner in its area of expertise.

History

NEC was created in 1946 from two different institutions: a Laboratory for Testing and Study of Materials, active since 1898, which had a solid experimental side, and a Centre for Studies in Civil Engineering, a scientific research unit created in 1942 under the name of Centre for Studies in Applied Mechanics, whose founder and leader was Eng.º Manuel Rocha, one of the greatest names of Portuguese engineering of the twentieth century, was also and one of LNEC’s first Directors.

Since its early days, LNEC has had in its genesis this double perspective - research and experimentation - that continues today, as one of its main characteristics and asset.

Until 1952, the year of the inauguration of LNEC’s campus at Av. do Brasil, the Laboratory (until then simply called "Laboratory for Civil Engineering") was spread over several buildings in Lisbon: the Customs Building (where the Laboratory for Testing and Study of Materials was installed), the Instituto Superior Técnico (where the Centre for Studies in Civil Engineering operated) and the Pavilion of the Hydraulics Division, at Av. do Brasil, which remains to the present day fully operational.

Built upon a culture of research and transfer of knowledge and technology, LNEC was, since the beginning, called out to assist on the pursuit of national objectives, such as the first public works programs, which began soon after World War II (dams, roads, fluvial and maritime hydraulics, large structures). About the same time, LNEC also began its activity around the world, supporting the development of the Portuguese Overseas provinces and carrying out studies and expert reports worldwide, some of them emblematic, as the study for the enlargement of Copacabana beach, activity that, even today, results in participation in dozens of international projects in association with other national and foreign institutions.

Organization

Aguas de Portugal (AdP) http://www.adp.pt/en/

The AdP – Águas de Portugal group plays a structural role in the environment sector in Portugal and spanning the fields of water supply and wastewater sanitation.

Through its holdings, the AdP Group operates nationwide, right from the north to the south, providing services to the municipalities that are simultaneously shareholders in the companies managing the multi-municipal systems (“upstream” systems) and directly serving their populations through municipal level services (“downstream” systems) for water supply and sanitation.

Over the course of the last two decades, the AdP Group has invested over €6.3 billion which, in conjunction with its planning and implementation capacities, its operational and financial management experience, the development of innovative solutions and the great commitment and dedication of its members of staff, has enabled a major improvement in these essential public services. This has resulted in positive and concrete impacts on the quality of the environment, public health, service standards and the overall sustainability of the sector.

Mission The AdP - Águas de Portugal group manages its socially held companies in accordance with its mission to design, build, operate and manage Water Supply and Wastewater Sanitation Systems within a framework of economic, financial, technical, social and environmental sustainability and correspondingly developing a Portuguese business group with strong, high-level competences, able to effectively and efficiently respond to the major challenges faced by the environmental sector.

Vision Established as a state sector business entity to implement public policies and attain national objectives within the environmental sector, the group strives to bring about universality, continuity and quality in all services alongside sector sustainability and the protection of environmental values.

Values Sustainability in the utilisation of natural resources and preserving water as a strategic resource essential to life, balancing and improving environmental quality, equity in the access to basic services and fostering well-being through raising the quality of life of citizens all represent fundamental AdP Group values.

History

The year of 1993 saw the launch of a genuine revolution in the supply of water and wastewater sanitation in Portugal. As a result of membership of the then European Economic Community, there was the scope for implementing a corporate management structure led by Águas de Portugal in partnership with the municipalities.

Through supra-municipal solutions, returning economies of scale and enabling greater levels of efficiency in the utilisation of resources, the group proved able to attain the objectives of raising water quality standards alongside public service levels with Portugal now ranking among the European Union countries attaining the best levels of environmental performance.

Today, Águas de Portugal group companies provide services, directly or indirectly, throughout all of mainland Portugal and across the fields of water supply and wastewater sanitation. The group runs further operations in the renewable energies and shared service sectors as well as its ongoing engagement in international markets.

Taking into account guaranteeing all citizens continuity, universality, quality and sustainability in the provision of these essential public services, the group sets about its mission and heading down a path enabling a more robust and sustainable future due to the excellence of the services rendered, its high level environmental performance and constantly deepening it technical, economic and financial levels of efficiency.

Águas do Ribatejo http://www.aguasdoribatejo.com/

Águas do Ribatejo is a company with high responsibilities in the seven municipalities served, , Alpiarça, Benavente, , , and . The company consisting only of public funds of the municipalities intervenes in the scope of the Intermediate Municipal Water Supply and Sanitation Systems of the Tejo and Almonda with a high sense of responsibility in the protection of the environment and consequent environmental sustainability.

Águas do Ribatejo has as mission to ensure a service of excellence that guarantees the continuous supply of quality water and the drainage and treatment of wastewater of the approximately 150 000 inhabitants of the municipalities covered.

History

In the last decade of the XX Portugal reveals serious shortcomings in water supply systems for public consumption, low levels of wastewater treatment and lack of solid waste management systems. The management and operation of these systems were the exclusive responsibility of the Municipalities, with investments predominating in a local and non-integrated logic.

In the 1990s, instruments began to emerge that would increase the levels of service provided by the Portuguese population in the water supply and sanitation sectors, in a sustainable manner, in quantity and quality. At this point, the first multi-municipal water supply and wastewater sanitation systems began to emerge, the responsibility of which was then assigned, aimed at remedying the inadequacies of water supply systems for public consumption and increasing the levels of water supply. population served by wastewater sanitation systems.

It is from this concept that the Inter - municipal System of Water Supply and Sanitation of the Tagus River, which allows the integrated management of the Water Supply and Sanitation services of the adhering Municipalities, through a company owned exclusively by Municipalities - AR - Águas do Ribatejo - constituted in December 2007, highlighting the fact that it is not based on a Multimunicipal System, but rather an Intermunicipal System.

This business formula enables the integrated management of water supply and drainage and wastewater treatment systems in the acceding municipalities and allows to achieve benefits of rationalization of the investment in the enlarged network, integrating solutions that would be more costly if taken individually by each municipality.

The situation prior to the RA made it difficult in several cases to solve the existing problems, not only because of the unbearable investment and financing required of some municipalities, but also because it did not allow finding integrated solutions that would provide significant economies of scale. In practice, despite the efforts made over recent years by the municipalities, the advantages, technical and economic level that could come from the integration of these efforts, became evident. In this logic, the Municipalities of Almeirim, Alpiarça, Benavente, Chamusca, Coruche and Salvaterra de Magos attributed to AR - Águas do Ribatejo, EIM, the management and operation of its Municipal Water Supply and Public Water Supply and Sanitation Systems Residual, in the "high" and "low" slopes.

Organization

Servicios Municipalizados http://www.sma.cm-abrantes.pt/

The Municipal Services of Abrantes aim to ensure the public supply of water to the municipality of Abrantes and, since the beginning of 2008, are part of the urban solid waste collection service.

Also from 2008 onwards, they cooperated and monitored the activities of the concessionaire company, which will ensure the drainage and treatment of urban wastewater from existing systems and make the necessary investments to expand them to ensure service to at least 92% of the municipality's population. Abrantes.

Mission and objectives

It is the mission of the municipal services of Abrantes (SMA) to ensure, with stringent quality standards, the public service of water supply of municipal solid waste collection , as well as ensuring compliance with the concession contract of wastewater services , the municipality of Abrantes, within a framework of economic, financial, technical, social and environmental sustainability.

Generally, the objectives of SMA are:

• Ensure the satisfaction of the needs of the population of the municipality of Abrantes in the area of water supply;

• Monitor and supervise the concession contract for the urban wastewater service of the Municipality of Abrantes;

• Ensure proper planning, organization, collection and transport of solid urban waste;

• In accordance with the available technical resources and capabilities, carry out other tasks assigned to it in the framework of the public basic sanitation service.

History

From the point of view of natural resources, Abrantes enjoys two of the largest water resources in the country: the Tagus River (which crosses the county in an area of about 30 km) and the Castelo do Bode, which takes advantage of the water of the Zêzere River , for energy production and reserve for water supply.

The city of Abrantes as well as some towns of the county have already a few centuries of history and in that time past the needs of water supply were supplied with resources to sources, springs and artesian wells. On January 4, 1928: The first Administrative Commission of the Municipal and Autonomous Services of the City Council of Abrantes took office, in compliance with the provisions of Decree No. 13 350 of March 28 of the Government Gazette.

In 1974: At the end of this year, the municipalities of Abrantes, , Amoreira, Alvega, , Matagosa, , , , Moinhos River, Rossio to the South of the Tagus, S. Miguel do Rio Torto, and Vale dos Mós. The 9,295 counters then installed registered 1,157,357 m3 of billed consumptions.

On 20 October 2002: It inaugurated the system of supply that currently serves more than 42% of the population of the county, with water captured in the Albufeira de Castelo do Bode.

On 24 November 2003 and 19 December 2003: By deliberations of the City Council and Municipal Assembly respectively, it was authorized to extend the scope of activities developed by the Municipal Services, to include the necessary skills to proceed with the management of the sanitation system in any of the modalities permitted by law.

As of January 2005: SMAs assume responsibilities in the area of sanitation.

On 23 April 2007: It was decided by the City Council that the concession (from Urban Wastewater to Abrantáqua) be accompanied by the Municipal Services.

In 2007: The new warehouse and the new workshop are inaugurated.

At its sitting of 14 December 2007: The Abrantes Municipal Assembly unanimously approved the municipalisation of the municipal solid waste management service and integration into the Municipal Services (SMA).

On 1 January 2008: The SMA is the entity responsible for planning, organizing, collecting and transporting to an appropriate destination of municipal solid waste.

March 16, 2008: Inauguration of the new warehouse and workshop.

On September 6, 2010: The SMA committed themselves to administrative modernization, with the opening of the new headquarters in the Abrantes Industrial Park, the existence of a full-time Board member, the introduction of a new computer application for water management, and the restructuring of services.

September 20, 2012: A telemarketing project of more than half a million euros of investment (telemarketing itself, instrumentation, communications and electricity, reclaiming) is under way, which will allow a qualitative leap in the control of the whole process of abstraction, treatment and distribution of water supply.

November 7, 2012: The washing station (specially designed for the municipal waste vehicles), the complementary warehouse and the expansion area of the workshop are put into operation.

Águas do Tejo Atlantico https://www.aguasdotejoatlantico.adp.pt/

Águas do Tejo Atlântico, SA is a public limited company, created by Decree-Law 34/2017, of March 24, responsible for the management and operation of the multi-municipal wastewater sanitation system of Greater Lisbon and the West, in exclusive regime and for a term of 30 years.

The company aims to collect, treat and reject domestic and urban effluents on a regular, continuous and efficient basis, coming from about 2.4 million inhabitants, covering the municipalities of Alcobaça, Alenquer, Amadora, Arruda dos Wines, Azambuja, Bombarral, Cadaval, Caldas da Rainha, Cascais, Lisbon, Loures, Lourinhã, Mafra, Nazaré, Óbidos, Odivelas, Oeiras, Peniche, , Sintra, Sobral de Monte Agraço, Torres Vedras and Vila Franca de Xira.

Mission

Águas do Tejo Atlântico has the mission of exploring and managing the multi-municipal wastewater sanitation system of Greater Lisbon and the West, guaranteeing the quality, continuity and efficiency of public water services, in the sense of protecting public health, good the accessibility of public services, environmental protection and the economic and financial sustainability of the sector, in a framework of tariff equity and stability, also contributing to regional development and spatial planning, as well as to national plans and programs and the obligations arising from Community legislation.

Vision

To be recognized, nationally and internationally, as a reference company in the water sector in Portugal, for quality of service provided, innovation, competence, efficiency, sustainability and value creation, within a framework of compliance with applicable legal requirements and other voluntary commitments by the company, working daily to:

To execute the necessary investment in the pursuit of its mission, implementing approaches for the global optimization of the management of the sanitation systems and guiding the design for the improvement of the energy performance;

• Ensure the provision of a sustainable and innovative service, focused on the client and other interested parties, respecting the environment, the community, the environment and promoting collaboration and the sharing of information and knowledge; • To ensure greater efficiency in the use of resources, in particular by focusing on renewable energies and promoting other energy optimization practices in the installations, reuse of treated waste water and the search for new solutions for process sludge, preventing pollution of and minimizing the environmental impacts associated with the activity; • Establish contracts for the supply of goods and services with suppliers who share our principles and business ethics and acquire energy-efficient products and services; • Ensure that workers find an increasingly safe and healthy workplace every day, integrating the aspects of Safety and Health at Work into the management of our business, so that all activities are considered from the perspective of prevention and minimization of risks; • To provide an increasingly better service, based on the establishment of a culture of continuous improvement that consolidates the management of processes and promotes performance efficiency and management model. • Ensure the responsibility and motivation of employees for a high level of performance, fostering teamwork, transversal to the company and promoting continuous training.

We believe that sustainable success can only be achieved through our employees, our customers, the community and other stakeholders, fulfilling their needs and expectations and ensuring the availability of information and resources necessary to achieve our goals and objectives.