The second sizeable rock fall at an Algarve beach in three days has hit the former jewel in the Algarve's crown, Dona Ana beach in the Lagos area.
Despite €1.8 million spent by the Portuguese Environment Agency, led by 'demolition man' Sebastião Teixeira, the cliffs clearly have remained in a dangerous state.
Five cubic metres of rock fell onto the sand but caused no injuries despite at least 300 people using the beach at the time.
Last year, Dona Ana beach was rated "the most beautiful in the world" as shown in the archive picture above, but then was attacked and modified with zeal by the Portuguese Environment Agency under Sebastião Teixeira who said of the latest rock fall that the work undertaken by contractors “probably saved lives,” but failed to explain this comment.
According to Environment Agency staff, at the time of the accident 350 people were enjoying the sea and sun at Dona Ana beach. The rock parted company from the very top of the ten metre high cliff, and broke into chunks when it hit the sand.
The rockfall occurred at the eastern end of the beach, near the beach facilities.
On Thursday afternoon, a rock with almost identical dimensions, fell from a height of three meters onto the beach Vale do Olival in the Lagoa area. Again, nobody was hurt.
These rockfalls from the Algarve’s cliffs, warns Teixeira, are part of the natural evolution of the rocks that frame the beaches. "You must be careful," he stressed, having spent €1.8 million of taxpayers’ money to make Dona Ana safe including work on its cliff tops to pre-empt rockfalls by scraping clear dangerous areas.
In May 20115, the then Minister of the Environment, Jorge Moreira da Silva, considered "decisive and sensible" the work at Dona Ana beach and assured all that the beauty of the beach would be preserved and the safety of bathers enhanced - neither of which happened.
Eco-organisations say the Algarve’s cliffs will always be dangerous and that it is needlessly destructive to undertake the sort of work that Dona Ana has been subjected to with machinery used to scrape rocks from the cliffs, sand dredged from the sea to make the beach bigger and an large artificial wall created in a vain attempt to stop the sand from being swept away by tides.
The agency is determined to continue its destructive intervention despite nature organisations agreeing that it is far more cost effective to prevent people sitting under the cliffs than trying to remove all potential areas of rockfall.
As for beach users, the current legislation, says Sebastião Teixeira, "only allows the imposition of fines for those using forbidden zones" - this being offered as some sort of excuse to carry on with his masterplan.
Dona Ana beach once was considered the "most beautiful in the world" by Condé Nast Traveller and the "best beach in Portugal" by TripAdvisor.
Despite the €1.8 million spent, a foul-water outfall was not attended to and continued to create an evil-smelling pool at the base of the cliff.
The Environment Agency is renowned for not paying any attention to Portugal’s environmental NGOs and doing its own thing in the face of eminently sensible alternatives.
One reader’s comment expresses the anger felt by many that this lovely beach has been commercialised and made ugly in the process.
Dona Ana “has been ruined by the greedy expansion. Just another expanse of pretty crappy, shell-laden sand, the beautiful rock formations and undersea formations buried forever. Shame on whoever took the back-hander for this vulgar, disgraceful raping of such a lovely, lovely place.”
Above - Dona Ana beach after a storm carried away much of the dredged and dumped sand.
The new sea wall, described variously as "unnecessary, intrusive, hardly original, unnatural, offensive and a waste of money."
