In an intervention to finalise the debate on the Douro estuary, Vladimiro Vale, from the political committee of the PCP Central Committee, emphasized the need to create “own institutions” in order to look at the Douro as a watershed.
In the same speech, he also criticised the process that led to the formation of the Portuguese Environment Agency “from structures that had knowledge and experience” in water treatment.
“The nature of dam managers and their ultimate goal is to focus on profit, thus preventing the estuary to be used for leisure or for other purposes”.
“If there is pressure to assign various powers to municipalities, in the case of water the opposite happens with privatising it,” said Vale.
Invited to talk about the Douro estuary, the researcher and university professor Bordalo e Sá spoke about the effects of “untreated sewage” that are sent to the river.
According to the academic, the Arrábida Bridge has a “very bad” water rating.
Environmentalist Paulo Silva, from the Rio Tinto Defense Movement, focused his intervention on wastewater treatment plants, revealing that the water that comes out of these “is not suitable for discharging into the Douro estuary”.
“In order to have quality bathing water again we will have to pass the law,” warned the environmentalist, criticising the “lightness” with which the Vila Nova de Gaia and Gondomar councils allow, “year after year, the population to bathe at the beaches of Areinho and Zebreiros, respectively”.