«A historic day» – that's how Rui André, Mayor of Monchique, described this Tuesday, the day when the municipality's sewage was connected to the Águas do Algarve network, now being treated at the Companheira WWTP, in Portimão .
To mark the date, Pedro Paulo, Secretary of State for the Environment and Spatial Planning, traveled to Monchique and was the member of the Government who had the responsibility of pressing the button that brought about the beginning of the end of sewage discharges in the streams .
The connection of the Monchique sewers to the Companheira WWTP is just one of the many changes that the mountain council is implementing in the basic sanitation and water supply network.
According to the works presented at a public session in which Pedro Paulo was present, before traveling to Caldas de Monchique, where the official ceremony for connecting sewage to the Águas do Algarve network was held until 2013 – with an investment of 4,7 million euros – 90 percent of the municipality's population will be covered by this sewerage network, which will lead to the end of discharges into the Monchique watercourses.
In this public session, Rui André highlighted that «for many years there was talk of connecting the sewers to Portimão and this seemed like a mirage. I felt embarrassed for leading a council that continued to dump sewage into the streams, a work that should have been done a long time ago».
In statements to the Sul Informação, the mayor also explained that a municipality that wants to bet on nature tourism cannot have discharges to the streams. “It doesn't make sense for a guest of a five-star hotel to go on a walking tour – which is one of our bets – and find sewers pouring into the waterways”.
Pedro Paulo, on the other hand, was “pleased with what the municipality wants to do, and for what it has presented in terms of differentiation strategies with the coast”.
However, the member of the Government also left some recommendations in relation to the works presented, so that they do not go back in time. “In addition to making the investment, it is necessary to ensure its sustainability and maintenance, as there will hardly be any new packages of European funds for this type of investment. If tariffs that make investments sustainable are not charged, we are going to go back 25 years, because the equipment ends up degrading. There are already WWTPs in the country that do not carry out treatment, they are just a “bypass” of wastewater», he warned.
The balance of the visit to the Algarve is positive
Regarding the visit to the Algarve, where he also participated in a meeting with all the mayors of the region, where the reform of the local administration was discussed, the Secretary of State for the Environment told the Sul Informação that the balance is positive.
“The objectives of the visit are achieved and are positive. There was a working meeting with all the mayors of the Algarve region and with the Secretary of State for Local Administration, where issues on administrative reform that are also connected with Spatial Planning were discussed. It was our goal to talk about important issues, debate the theme, and get feedback on the difficulties of the mayors, to know how these reforms can be as appropriate as possible», he concluded.
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