A further example of Portugal’s food processing sector flouting environmental laws has been published on a news website.
A video shows the discharge of tomato concentrate into a tributary of the Tejo, already blighted from pollution from pulp mills and other processing plant.
The latest incident is into the Asseca river in Rio Maior, Santarém, from a factory whose management already has been reported by the General Inspection of the Environment for similar episodes, the latest of which was just two months ago.
The complaint, emailed to noticiasaominuto.com, states that 'Tomatagro - Indústria Agroalimentar Lda,' a tomato processing plant located in the town of São João da Ribeira, is directly responsible for yet more dumping of pollutants.
The company stated that, "on this topic, management is not available for any statement."
In August this year, the General Inspection of the Environment informed the Public Ministry of a crime of environmental pollution in the Asseca river due to Tomatagro discharging from its processing plant. The water was thick with red effluent that degraded the quality of the water to the extent that fish were killed.
Management was given five days to put an end to these illegal discharges, otherwise it would have to be shut down.
Two months later, images of new discharges were captured in the river that flows into Tejo, a river with problems enough of its own.
Click HERE for the video clip
