High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Water supply and sanitation in Portugal is characterized by important advances in access to services, technologies and service quality over past decades (1980s?1990s), partially achieved thanks to important funds from the European Union. Nevertheless, sanitation still remains relatively low in mountain rural areas and some people have their own sources of water controlled by municipalities. During the 1990s Portugal has put in place a modern institutional framework for the sector, which includes a national regulatory agency and multi-municipal water and sanitation companies.