Elements of the Intervention Group for Protection and Relief (GIPS) of the GNR have been working since Tuesday at Praia de Benagil, on the coast of Lagoa, in an action coordinated with the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) to dismantle unstable areas of the cliff.
After the process of filling this small beach with sand, an operation that ended last Monday, now it is time to "surgically" drop blocks from the cliff that threaten to collapse at any moment.
For this, elements of the GIPS descend in recall down the cliff, by hand, with the help of a shovel or a lever, or even using a small pneumatic hammer, to drop blocks of stone onto the beach, now deserted and forbidden.
This type of action had been successfully tested in mid-June last year, in Praia da Rocha, in an operation that the Sul Informação also followed closely.
At the time, geologist Sebastião Teixeira, responsible for the Portuguese Environment Agency/Administration of the Hydrographic Region of the Algarve, had said that this is a «partnership that we want to be extrapolable to the entire country». "The GNR has this operational capacity, we have limitations of action," he added.
«What we are doing here is to anticipate landslides, to make unstable stones fall so that they do not fall when we don't want to, namely when people are passing by the cliffs», explained the geologist responsible for the operation. And how do technicians know that those are the areas at risk of falling? «They have all the symptoms that anticipate the imminent fall: cracks and cracks».
Artificial sand filling of Carvoeiro Beach has already started
Complementing a vast operation to protect beaches in the Algarve, the artificial filling operation of the sands began on Tuesday at Praia de Carvoeiro, also on the coast of Lagoa.
Operations on this one of the most popular beaches in Lagos have been followed with interest by tourists and residents, both nationals and foreigners.
The work of the tube, which, coming from the dredger anchored off the beach, spurts sand and water onto the beach, which is then conditioned by an excavator, has been the focus of dozens of photographs, some of them already circulating around the world, on social networks.
The objective of these interventions under the responsibility of the APA is to make the beaches grow to a width of 40 meters of sand, so that bathers move away from the risky strips along the cliffs.
Of the six beaches where we will intervene this year, in an investment of 2,2 million euros, the sands of Praia Nova, Cova Redonda (near Vila Lara) and Benagil have already been replenished, and the operation in Carvoeiro is now underway.
There are only two beaches left on the coast of Albufeira (Coelha and Castelo), and the works should finish in mid-November.
Click here to see more photos about the filling of Carvoeiro Beach
Click here to see more photos on the cliff dismantling operation in Benagil
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