Following years of delays, the construction of Faro’s long-awaited crematorium – which is expected to at least partially solve the overcrowding issues at the town’s two cemeteries – has finally begun.
The project has been in the pipeline for nearly 10 years but had yet to take the final step towards construction due to a series of legal and bureaucratic issues.
If all goes according to plan, the crematorium could be up and running at the town’s new cemetery by September 2020.
This is good news not only for Faro but also for the whole Algarve. The closest crematorium is located in Ferreira do Alentejo in Beja.
The crematorium involves a €1.1 million investment covered in full by funeral agency Servilusa.
“Our Esperança cemetery is overcrowded,” Faro Mayor Rogério Bacalhau told reporters at a ‘Faro Positivo’ event on Wednesday, October 16.
He explained that 500 new ‘gavetões’ (compartments to store human remains in cemetery walls) were built recently at the town’s newest cemetery which has helped “minimise” the problem, but without the crematorium the local council would have to build even more ‘gavetões’ very soon.
Bacalhau said there is a growing demand for cremations and that many people in the Algarve are travelling to Lisbon and Alentejo to seek the services of crematoriums.
“This crematorium will provide people with better conditions during such a painful time in their lives,” he added.
It will be equipped with a vestibule, toilets, a room where bodies will be prepared for cremation, a farewell room where people will be able to say goodbye to their loved ones, two storage rooms, a cremation furnace and a “pyrolysis furnace” to burn waste associated with burials in cemeteries.
This last furnace is viewed as extremely important as “open-air burning” is not allowed, which means this waste is usually buried and ends up contaminating the land.
This way, the waste is properly burned in a controlled environment, explained Servilusa’s project director Paulo Carvalho.
He guaranteed that long waiting lists won’t be an issue as Servilusa is committed to making sure grieving family members and friends won’t have to endure long, painful periods before their loved one is cremated.
“We will provide cremations at any time of the day,” Carvalho concluded.
Original article written by Maria Simiris for Barlavento newspaper.
Photo from left: António Palma, architect responsible for the crematorium project, Paulo Carvalho, project manager at Servilusa, and Faro mayor Rogério Bacalhau
Photo by: MARIA SIMIRIS/OPEN MEDIA GROUP
