According to statements made to Lusa, the port captain of Olhão said that “the ban on Fuseta-Ria beach was lifted around 1:30 PM,” after analyses conducted by the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) on a sample collected on Tuesday showed that the water was no longer contaminated with E.coli bacteria, which had led to the bathing prohibition.
The situation has also returned to normal at Armação de Pera beach, where on Tuesday bathing was discouraged due to microbiological contamination detected in analyses of samples collected on Monday, according to information provided today by APA.
On Tuesday, sources from the Olhão captaincy, which has jurisdiction in the Fuseta area, and Portimão captaincy, responsible for beaches in the Silves area, told Lusa that the decision to ban and discourage bathing, respectively, was based on water samples that revealed the presence of E.coli bacteria in Fuseta and enterococci in Armação de Pera.
“At 11:00 AM, we received communication from the health delegate stating that bathing was prohibited,” Alexandre Algarvio, the port captain of Olhão, told Lusa at the time, specifying that it was based on an analysis carried out on Monday.
The Olhão port captain also indicated that another analysis would be conducted on a sample collected on Tuesday, which today proved to be free of contamination, allowing environmental authorities to lift the ban.
Regarding the case of Armação de Pera, the Portimão port captain said on Tuesday that the Algarve Hydrographic Region Administration (ARH), upon the proposal of the Algarve Regional Health Authority, had advised against bathing due to “detected values of intestinal enterococci above the limit value.”
Eduardo Pousadas Godinho emphasized at the time that the measure would remain in place until at least today when the results of a new analysis would be known, which turned out to be negative.
