One of the joys of being the Secretary of State for the Environment is that you get to unveil plaques at sewage treatment works.
The latest new plant for the western Algarve has been inaugurated and will treat the effluent produced by 14,000 citizens and tourists in Vila do Bispo and Sagres as from next summer.
The Secretary of State, Carlos Martins, even unveiled a plaque at the site which comes under the management of Águas do Algarve and cost around €2.3 million - the plant, not the plaque.
Martins also was faced with a silent demonstration against the exploration for oil and gas in the Algarve - see 2nd picture below.
"The completion of this infrastructure has put an end to a long process that involved construction and the difficulties over acquiring the land," says the local authority, explaining that the difficulties over the land were solved by using land the council already owned.
When the new treatment station is opened next June, the inefficient, hazardous old ones serving the area can at last be shut down.
Never satisfied, the Vila do Bispo mayor Adelino Soares took advantage of the presence of a Secretary of State to issue a challenge to central government to build a new plant in Burgau.
For Águas do Algarve, it’s all about quality effluent...and Spanish contractors as the Vila do Bispo plant is being built by Spanish sewage plant specialist Acciona.
Acciona also is to build the wastewater treatment plant in Companheira, Portimão which should be ready in 2018. This treatment plant will serve 140,000 inhabitants and as it is a bigger project will involve a Portuguese construction company.
It is not clear why the Companheira project has taken so long as one sniff of the local air tells an inquisitive public that a new plant is long overdue.
Apparently the European Investment Bank has been negotiating with Águas de Portugal for a finance package worth a staggering €800 million that will be used to finance the Portimão sewage plant and the equally long awaited Faro-Olhão treatment works, as well as other major projects in the Alentejo.
The Faro-Olhão plant, when completed, will stop the need for Águas do Algarve to allow the dumping of partially treated and raw sewage into the legendary pristine waters of the Ria Formosa lagoon where shellfish are grown and people love to swim.
Isabel Soares of Águas do Algarve, the Ministry for the Environment and the Olhão and Faro mayors have managed to ignore this problem for so long that in their minds it probably no longer exists.
The effluent pipe near the passenger ferry terminal in Olhão is a good place to stand and watch the steady flow of sewage into the harbour.
In the meantime, Ministers unveil plaques and water authorities do big deals with large banks while closing their eyes and noses to the reality of many of the Algarve's 2016 sewage problems.
