La construcción de la red de abastecimiento de agua en Barreiro (Setúbal)

The construction of the water supply infrastructure in the locality of Barreiro (Setúbal) illustrates diverse aspects of the public water management model undertaken in continental Portugal from the second third of the 20th century. Sources consulted encompass local, state, and international institutional documents as well as private papers, ranging from annual reports to specialist studies, among others. The positive outcomes in terms of better public health conditions and the growth of industry were obscured by the appearance of new taxes and unequal access to water. This inequality was caused by the availability of larger volumes of water, thanks to the combined stimulus -and commercialisation- of private water prospection initiatives and the location of most of the country's industry in a relatively small area. On the one hand, a scenario arose of new economic dependence due to the compulsory payment of services by part of the population, on the other, ecosystemic factors intervened; at the dawn of the 1990s, Barreiro was among the areas of the country with greatest problems of overexploitation and contamination of water resources.