News and developments from Portugal's southern Algarve region.
Loulé has opened a consultation to rent homes from owners, with offers due by 22 November, and extended its calls to buy homes and land for 50 or more homes. Who can offer, how offers are scored, and how the council pays.
A new action plan for 2026 to 2030 funds the lynx with 650,000 euros a year from the Environmental Fund and 350,000 from Águas do Algarve, and orders a damage compensation scheme for farmers by 31 December.
IPMA has four southern districts on yellow alert for thunderstorms on Sunday. Its forecasts then show a dry, fresher week, with Lisbon near 20 °C and the first cold nights inland, down to about 3 °C in Guarda and Bragança.
The SNS filled 194 of its 322 incentivised doctor posts in underserved areas in 2025, leaving 128 empty. Family medicine took the largest share. This year's order offers 332 posts, with a monthly bonus of 40 percent of a new specialist's base pay for six years.
As the public consultation closes, the environmental association Zero wants the eastern Algarve dam refused: it says the study admits the saramugo fish will not survive, skips real alternatives and breaches EU water and habitat law.
The men, aged 21, 24 and 40, were waterproofing the reservoir of a private house in Almancil. Three older co-workers were treated at the scene, and the cause has not been officially determined.
The new head of Águas do Algarve told MPs the Albufeira desalination plant should be running in the first quarter of 2029. With the Guadiana intake at Pomarão, the two projects add up to about 305 million euros, now sought from EU cohesion funds.
