"It's a long-desired dream because what existed was a nightmare." This is how Joaquim Peres, Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of Águas do Algarve, referred this Wednesday to the construction of Companheira's new Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP), in Portimão, whose foundation stone ceremony featured the presence of the Secretary of State for the Environment.
The new WWTP, which will be ready within two years (720 days of construction) and represents an investment of 13,8 million euros, will be dimensioned for a population of 140 people, serving the municipalities of Portimão, Monchique and Lagoa.
In addition to the environmental advantages - which are several - of the new equipment, the most visible (or smelly) improvement will be the fact that, finally, the future WWTP will make it possible to put an end to the bad smells that, over the years, have affected populations, visitors and entrepreneurs.
“Those who live here are forced to live with this problem of bad smell on a daily basis and few people believed that the situation would ever end. Therefore, this is a very happy day for me and for the council», guaranteed Isilda Gomes, president of the Portimão City Council.
Carlos Martins, Secretary of State for the Environment, for his part, expressed his "double pleasure" for being there, since, in his previous roles, precisely as chairman of the Board of Directors of Águas do Algarve, the Companheira WWTP had been “one of the first concerns”.
The current structure, in operation since 1982, "is not up to the level of the Algarve, nor of the level of Águas do Algarve", underlined the government official.
Bearing in mind that for about a decade there has been talk of replacing the Companheira's undersized WWTP with a new one, with another technology, and invoking his own recent experience, the secretary of State said he does not understand «how can a project like this, only from an administrative point of view, it takes so long to start building…»
Carlos Martins added that this "work serves an area that is almost the heart of the Algarve" and that it has been justified for a long time, "taking into account the importance of the Algarve for the national economy". "The quality of the environment is decisive for attracting both tourists and investors," he said.
And for those who still have suspicions about the future, the Secretary of State for the Environment guaranteed that “now a much more sophisticated technology will be used, in which human intervention can correct and speed up processes. The previous WWTP generated bad smell situations, but ending this is now the big, big bet. Here we will have a facility equipped with technology that, if properly operated, avoids all these problems. Those who live here will finally be able to open their windows in the morning!».
Before the symbolic ceremony of the first stone, a technical responsible explained the “additional care” that the new WWTP, already under construction, will have to resolve once and for all the issue of bad odors, ensuring that there will be several processes to avoid them. For example, it will be guaranteed that “the air produced in the installation, in the areas of greatest contamination, is treated and deodorized before being released into the atmosphere”.
But the environmental advantages of the new WWTP are not limited to the quality of the air (and that would be no small thing). The effluent resulting from the treatment will have much better quality, allowing «to discharge it directly, in environmentally safe conditions, into the Boina river, contributing to the improvement of the environmental quality of the Arade estuary».
In the future, as suggested by Mayor Isilda Gomes and accepted by Secretary of State Carlos Martins, the challenge is to reuse these treated effluents in urban uses, such as watering and washing public spaces or cleaning containers. The use of these treated waters for «compatible uses», underlined the government official, «should be studied by Águas do Algarve and the municipalities». The fact is that, noted Carlos Martins, Portugal has to strive to meet the target of 10% reuse of treated wastewater defined by the European Union, since the current level is only 1%.
Two years from now, when the new WWTP is built and goes into operation, it will remain to be seen what to do with the land that today houses the treatment lagoons of the current plant. Mayor Isilda Gomes already has a plan, although she does not commit to deadlines, due to the known difficulties of the Municipality of Portimão: «to create an urban park here, by the river, an environmentally pleasant area, to be used by everyone, but especially by the Portimonsians».
Secretary of State Carlos Martins had already referred to this issue of the future use of the area to be freed and warned of an "environmental liability" problem that is still unresolved, which is the final destination of the sludge, "which, in the end, of the work, have to be removed and forwarded».
But the mayor of Portimão stressed, in final statements to journalists, that it is necessary "to bring together the means to carry out this transformation." «I will do everything so that this project [to create a riverside park in the area occupied by the current treatment lagoons] becomes a reality, so that, in a few years' time, maybe not two, but as soon as possible, we can move forward with this park".
In conclusion, Isilda Gomes considered the launch of the new WWTP work for Companheira as «an enormous qualitative leap, not only for Portimão, but also for Monchique, Lagoa and the entire Algarve». Interestingly, despite the regional importance of the new infrastructure, the ceremony was not attended by any mayor from neighboring counties also served by the new WWTP…
Meanwhile, the construction work of Companheira's new WWTP is already advancing at full speed, with the work of the huge machines that will literally have to undo the top of the road, on the edge of the EN125 and next to the bridge over the Ribeira da Boina. assemble and lower the quotas to install the various buildings and equipment that make up the structure.
Photos: Elisabete Rodrigues|Sul Informação:
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