What is the importance of water management for Riopele?

At a time when water dominates public debate — whether due to winter floods or summer droughts — it is impossible to ignore the fragility of its balance. Managing this resource is now a matter of responsibility and long-term vision.

Riopele’s connection to water protection and sustainable consumption dates back to 1927, when the visionary José Dias de Oliveira founded the company in a small mill on the banks of the River Pele, in northern Portugal. At the time, two looms powered by the river produced fabric using the most reliable resource of the era: running water. The river did more than power machinery — it gave the company its name and helped shape its identity.

As the business grew rapidly, it became necessary to increase the number of machines to meet rising order volumes. Consequently, Riopele required greater water resources to support its production needs.

At the time, the River Pele was one of the main available water sources. However, as the company was located in an area with a strong industrial presence — and at a time when adequate sanitation and treatment infrastructure was still lacking — the river water gradually became incompatible with the requirements of industrial processes.

In the 1980s, long before water scarcity became a central topic in the global debate, Riopele made a decisive move: it built its own Water Treatment Plant (WTP). This allowed the company to treat river water according to the standards required for industrial use and marked a paradigm shift — water was no longer simply consumed; it began to be actively managed.

In the years that followed, water management became increasingly complex. Climate change, growing demand from agriculture and households, and reduced river flow — particularly during the summer months — made direct dependence on natural resources progressively less sustainable.

In response, the company launched an internal study and invested in the treatment of effluents from its own industrial processes, progressively reducing direct river abstraction and its reliance on natural water sources.

Where does our water come from?

Today, most of the water used in Riopele’s production comes from its own groundwater sources (boreholes and wells), the reuse of water from production processes, and rainwater harvesting. Reliance on the public water supply has become residual — and in recent years, practically unnecessary.

Around 59% of the water used is now reused through internal management, treatment, and recovery systems. Since 2000, this approach has enabled the recovery of approximately 10 billion litres of water — equivalent to supplying the municipality of Vila Nova de Famalicão for more than a year. In 2025 alone, around 400 million litres were reused, equivalent to 160 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

At a time when Portugal faces extreme water-related events — from prolonged droughts to intense flooding — it is clear that water has never been merely a given resource. It represents strength, risk, and balance. The way it is managed defines not only the resilience of communities, but also the sustainability of the companies that depend on it.

At the same time, continuous investment in technology, the optimisation of production processes, and state-of-the-art equipment has strengthened water efficiency across operations, enabling a reduction of approximately 34% in water consumption between 2021 and 2025. As a result, total consumption in 2025 was around 200 million litres lower than in 2021.