The Municipality of Odemira has announced that the bathing restriction at Zambujeira do Mar beach, which had been in place since Tuesday, has been lifted. The announcement was made in a statement published on the municipality’s Facebook page.
While welcoming the “return to normalcy” at the beach, the municipality emphasized that it “will remain committed to identifying, along with the competent authorities and with the resources at its disposal, the causes that have led to these episodes, in order to resolve them permanently.”
Contacted by Lusa news agency, the Mayor of Odemira, Hélder Guerreiro, explained that the bathing ban at Zambujeira do Mar “was lifted on Thursday evening,” although it only takes practical effect today.
“We received the results of the water analyses that allowed us to lift the bathing ban,” he said, explaining that the red flag has been removed, which will allow for a normal beach day today.
The municipality, together with other entities, will “continue to collect samples and conduct analyses at various points along the water line, in order to identify the contamination points of the Zambujeira stream.”
“We won’t stop until we resolve all sources of pollution in the stream,” he promised.
Since Tuesday, this Alentejo beach had been on the list of locations not recommended and prohibited for bathing, published on the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) website.
According to the APA, the water at Zambujeira do Mar beach was banned for bathing due to microbiological contamination.
In a previous statement, the Municipality of Odemira indicated that it had become aware of the “perception of bad odor and inconsistent tonalities of the water course.”
The municipality said it had been informed by the company Águas Públicas do Alentejo (AgdA) that on Monday, “a deficiency in the aerators and recirculation pumps of the Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP)” had been diagnosed.
According to the municipality, in an unrelated event, a rupture occurred on Tuesday in the irrigation system of the Mira Hydroagricultural Development, upstream of the WWTP, which “significantly increased the flow of the water course that flows into the beach and caused a strong drag in the riverbed.”
“From what we could ascertain, and despite the coincidence of events, the water from this rupture does not pose a danger to public health,” the municipality assured at the time.
