The Portuguese government is moving ahead with plans to better protect Faro from flooding while launching a new study into how the Algarve should deal with the enormous amount of rubbish it produces every year.
Environment and Energy Minister Maria da Graça Carvalho will travel to the Algarve on Friday, October 30 to formalise two agreements covering what she describes as two of the region’s most pressing environmental challenges.
One will see the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) help Faro Council draw up a flood-prevention plan, identifying works needed to reduce the risk of flooding and preparing an application for European funding through the Sustentável 2030 programme.
“Faro is one of the areas of the Algarve that has been particularly affected by episodes of flooding,” said the minister.
She added that Faro and Albufeira have been identified as two priority areas in the Algarve as Portugal seeks to improve its resilience to increasingly extreme weather events.
The intention is to establish what work is needed, seek available funding and provide greater protection for residents, homes and businesses.
Algarve produces 436,000 tonnes of rubbish a year
The second agreement tackles a very different – but equally sizeable – problem.
The Algarve produces around 436,000 tonnes of urban waste every year, with approximately 85% still being sent to landfill.
Average daily waste production stands at 2.4kg per inhabitant, compared with a national average of 1.4kg, according to figures presented by the government.
APA will now work with the Algarve Intermunicipal Community (AMAL) – which brings together the region’s 16 municipalities – and scientific and academic institutions to study different ways of treating the region’s waste.
The work will assess available technologies, environmental and economic impacts and possible locations for whatever new infrastructure is eventually chosen.
“The Algarve needs an urgent and lasting response to a problem that has dragged on for far too long,” said Graça Carvalho.
“The figures show that we cannot continue to depend on landfill as the main destination for urban waste.”
The problem has become increasingly pressing because the Algarve’s two existing landfills, in Portimão and Loulé, are running short of capacity. Earlier this year, the minister said one had around a year and a half of space remaining and the other around two years, although extensions are planned to buy the region more time.
The Algarve is also Portugal’s biggest producer of waste per person, a figure heavily influenced by tourism because visitors add to the amount of rubbish generated without being counted in resident population statistics.
What happens to the rubbish?
The government says the new study will look at technologies capable of cutting the amount of waste buried in landfill and recovering more value from what is thrown away.
In August, Graça Carvalho said energy recovery – producing energy from residual waste – appeared to be one of the most suitable options for the Algarve, although she stressed that the technology and location still had to be studied.
Environmental organisations including Almargem, ZERO and Quercus have since argued that alternatives must be properly assessed before any decision is taken, calling for greater emphasis on waste reduction, separation, recycling and treatment of organic waste.
The Algarve branch of the CDS-PP has also opposed proceeding directly with an incinerator and has presented an alternative proposal centred partly on organic waste treatment.
The October 30 agreement will now formally bring the APA, AMAL and academic and scientific institutions together to assess the options and potential locations.
“We are taking concrete steps to solve two important challenges for the Algarve: protecting Faro from the risk of flooding and finding a modern and sustainable solution for the region’s waste,” the minister concluded.