Environmental association, Quercus, says that Portugal is way off hitting the 2027 Water Framework Directive as 70% of waste water is channelled back into rivers - and polluters are seldom investigated or punished.
With the current state of drought across much of the mainland, with rivers flowing slowly or not at all, and with polluters continuing to pollute, Portugal’s water system is in an unhealthy mess.
Quercus points out that only 40% of Portugal’s existing waste water treatment plants have a valid discharge license and even those may not be complying with the discharge rules – nobody knows because there is no effective sampling plan put in place by the authorities, why would they?
The association points out that only about 1.5% of wastewater from treatment plants is reused, with the remainder being discharged into rivers, where in most cases the water is re-captured and used in the public water supply system.
According to the 2016 Inspection Report published by the Portuguese Environment Agency, 1,204 instances of environmental infractions were accepted, mostly in the area of water resources. Of these, only 251 were followed up and the report says nothing about what happened to these polluters.
Quercus says this simply is not right as 80% of the detected polluters were not even confronted and of the 20% who were followed up, it is not known whether a fine was imposed or any clean-up action taken.
This situation is serious and Quercus demands explanations because it considers that either there is a problem in the training of enforcement personnel or the Portuguese Environment Agency does not have the staff to follow up cases.
Given the ability for polluters to carry on regardless, Quercus wants the various agencies involved to monitor water quality and to prosecute polluters in order to dissuade others.
A blind eye is turned to many sources of pollution where it seems more convenient simply to do nothing.
One case in point is the steady flow of sewage into the Ria Formosa near the Olhão ferry terminal, a situation that the public and the council are well aware of, as are the authorities which should act to order the council and its water company to take immediate action to halt this public health hazard.
Nothing is done year-after-year leaving thousands of tourists wondering at a society that allows raw sewage to flow unimpeded into what the tourist board describes a as a crystal clear lagoon.
With prevailing attitudestowards polluters, the chances of Portugal hitting EU targets remain slim, despite occcassional examples of investment in new, efficient systems.
