Loulé will be, on the 15th of June, at Praia do Ancão, the first municipality in the country to fly the Blue Flag.
Thus, the Algarve county will host the national ceremonies for the raising of the Blue Flag.
The raising of the Blue Flag and “Acessible Beach” awards will be attended by the most diverse responsible entities: national coordination of the Blue Flag Programme, Algarve Tourism, Regional Health Administration of the Algarve, Captaincy of Porto de Faro, Portuguese Environment Agency, Parish Councils, municipal companies, among others directly involved in the beach area.
This Blue Flag award is, for the Loulé municipality, «the crowning of a remarkable and demanding effort», developed «cyclically in the preparation and planning of the bathing season, in observance of imperative criteria, among which, the good quality of the water bathing and strict management and safety of beaches and surrounding areas».
In a bathing season marked by Covid-19, the Blue Flag Association Europe (ABAE) emphasizes that "an exceptional, transitory and temporary criterion" was created, with the entities responsible for the awarded beach being responsible for implementing the extraordinary rules in its space.
In this regard, the Municipality of Loulé, in permanent collaboration with the other competent authorities, guarantees that "it is already taking the necessary steps, in order to safeguard the local economy and the health of residents and visitors to the municipality in the best possible way." .
In addition to environmental issues, accessibility is also one of the municipality's main concerns and concerns.
In this sense, the municipality's beaches have been increasingly presenting privileged conditions of accessibility and mobility for everyone, including the possibility of assisted bathing. The ColorADD Code will also be implemented, a universal color alphabet, which is a pioneering and transversal system that, through partners, allows more than 350 million color blind people worldwide (1 in 10 men and 1 in 20 women) to identify Colors.
Thus, the Municipality will once again train and equip bathing spaces, integrating the ColorADD code in chromatic communication supports, in containers for the selective collection of beach waste (yellow, green, blue and black) and in the communication panels of services and accessibility bathing, among others.
With a view to providing the beach of Quarteira with better comfort for its visitors, the Municipality of Loulé also replaced and expanded the network of salt water feet washing with more modern and totally ecological equipment (going from 17 to 23 units, each one currently with two saltwater outlets).
The Blue Flag Program has a support space, the Centro Azul, open to the public between June and September, from Monday to Sunday, with the availability of technicians/animators who monitor and streamline activities and provide information and clarification to citizens, raising awareness and making users aware of the importance of preserving and promoting bathing areas.
The Algarve has, this year, 87 Blue Flag beaches.
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