Lands21

Can anyone tell me if its OK to fill water bottles from the small 'lavarda' channels along the roadside to use in the garden. Is it public water??? Thank You

chislenko

Lots of locals do it round our way.

liveaboard

What's a "Lavarda" channel?

andywally

we have a spring directly opposite our house, it runs constantly and all of the locals fill their water bottles from it, so do we............. in fact its the only water that we have drunk in a year that hasnt come out of a bottle from the supermarket........... and no ill affects

EU.flag

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levada

liveaboard

Oh, Levada...
I know 2 people who have them on their land.
The water is all allocated to specific users. Usually everyone gets a day to use the water in turn, sometimes it's 1/2 day.
And everyone has to do their share of the maintanace work too.
Most don't work anymore because they depend on a lot of cooperation.

So, the water does belong to someone; maybe no one minds if you take some bottles, but maybe they do.

A ton, 1000 liters of water from your domestic supply is just a few euros; a few bottes of water is worth a few cents.

A neighbor of mine carries a ton of canal water at a time in his pickup over to a plot he has, to save on the domestic water charge there.
A few euros...

andywally

ahhhhhh........I now know that the spring opposite my house has nothing to do with this subject and we have a 'Levada' too all the way around our top terrace, no idea yet how it works but the neighbours do you use it between them, I have yet to suss out the process or who controls the flow from the source, or how to control the flow from the source.............. in time maybe !!

macliam

Water rights in Portugal are a tricky subject...... I have a stream running through my poroperty but no "right" to the water. Nobody would complain if I take a bit to water my plants, but a pumped irrigation system is a no-no. After eight years I still haven't fully got my head around the "rules". Equally, I have a dry stream bed that bisects my land, but I must either maintain it or divert it to a canal so that the occasional rainfall is managed (and in the Alentejo, that makes a lot of sense). Best buddy up with a few neighbours and do what they do......

EU.flag

Check with local Camara, they will have info if its own by them.
Also google local area groups/associations of levada.

Lands21

Unfortunately we don't have a domestic supply. All our water comes from a cisterns tank.

macliam

You mean a cisterna filled by rainwater? I hope you're not drinking it!

Lands21

yes it's a cisterna but we have a local delivery of water when needed. We buy bottled bottle to drink.