Albufeira opens bathing season with an innovative project for color blind

Councilor Rogério Neto and José Carlos Rolo, mayor of Albufeira

The “ColorAdd” initiative will allow people who are color-blind to know, through codes, which is the color of the flag that is currently flying and is the big news for the bathing season in Albufeira, which officially began this Tuesday, 15 of May.

To celebrate the beginning of the bathing season, there was an event at Praia dos Pescadores, in Albufeira. In declarations to the Sul Informação, José Carlos Rolo, mayor of Albufeira, said that “ColorAdd”, which will be implemented in all supervised beaches in the municipality, is «a very simple project, but with some innovation».

The initiative makes going to the beach for people who are color blind much easier. “Basically, it's about matching the colors of the flags, taking into account the degree of danger that the sea has,” he explained. These flags will have a specific contrast and symbol that can be easily identified by the colorblind.

This new project is «invented by the Portuguese» and was one of the novelties unveiled during the opening of the bathing season, in addition to the announcement of the implementation, next year, of a project, with «some scale, in order to improve and requalify all accesses to the beaches, with properly organized parking».

At the moment, the Algarve municipality is “recovering the crosswalks that were slightly deteriorated” due to the bad winter weather, although the City Council has not yet received government funds.

Regarding stormwater discharges in the Inatel zone, José Carlos Rolo told the Sul Informação that "in a few days" a project will appear on the spot. The objective is to minimize the problems caused by the dragging of sand, especially after periods of heavy rain.

For this summer, several awareness campaigns are also scheduled. The first is on the issue of the cliffs, «which is a problem that always brings us some extra attention, given the tragedy that happened at Praia Maria Luísa a few years ago».

Since, "on the beach", not "everything is good and some care is needed", the municipality of Albufeira will also launch an awareness campaign aimed at sunstroke, for people to avoid exposure to the sun without sunscreen.

For 2019, the lighting of all accesses to the beaches and the installation of photovoltaic solar panels are also planned, «to show that Albufeira is also friendly to the environment».

«The bathing season in the Algarve should be every day, when the security conditions allow it and when there is this availability on the part of the concessionaires and the local authority», defended Desidério Silva, president of the Algarve Tourism Region, also emphasizing that, in the total, there will be 89 Blue Flag beaches throughout the Algarve, which is the most distinguished area of the country.

The arrival of the mayor of Albufeira did not bother tourists who even slept…

Albufeira is the national record holder for the number of blue flags, which will be hoisted on the 4th of June on 25 beaches in that municipality, as well as 16 of them being «accessible beaches», as explained by the mayor.

At the opening of the bathing season, the National Republican Guard, the Maritime Authority, the Voluntary Firefighters and the Association of Salvadoran Swimmers of Albufeira were present.

In addition to various recreational activities and safety and environmental lessons for the children in the municipality's primary schools, everyone was able to watch a simulation of the performance of lifeguards at Praia dos Pescadores.