Promising to bring an end to the foul smells and polluting ways of the past, Portimão’s new ETAR water treatment plant was officially inaugurated on Tuesday (April 3). Attending the inauguration were Environmental Minister João Pedro Matos Fernandes and Secretary of State for the Environment Carlos Manuel Martins.
Representing a €13.8 million investment, the new infrastructure, located in Companheira, now serves a population of around 140,000 people in Portimão, Silves and Monchique and treats an average of around 32,000 cubic metres of water per day.
The old plant was considered “obsolete and problematic” and was often criticised for the foul smells it emanated that were the opposite of a welcome card for anyone driving into Portimão.
“Our visitors would pull up their car windows every time they drove along the bridge,” said Portimão mayoress at the centre’s inauguration ceremony.
“This wasn’t a pleasant situation, especially in a tourist region of excellence like ours in which the environmental standards should be of maximum quality.”
The new facility also aims to significantly increase the quality of the waste water that is treated and then released into the river, thus reducing its levels of pollution.
Joaquim Peres, president of regional water authority Águas do Algarve, highlighted how the project was completed within the original deadline considering the discoveries that were made at the site.
The first of them was made in 2015 when traces of human occupation from prehistoric times were found in a cave near the construction site.
An ancient underground cave network believed to be around 300,000 years old was also found beneath the construction site.
Despite this, the work was able to move along without jeopardising the opening of the ETAR.
Photo: BRUNO FILIPE PIRES/OPEN MEDIA GROUP
