The Mayor of Vizela, Victor Hugo Salgado, met today with the Secretary of State for the Environment to demand from the Government an “effective and definitive solution” to the pollution problem of the Vizela River, the mayor told Lusa.
“At today’s meeting, we stressed our position on the urgency of seeing a very serious problem solved that has been worrying us for so long,” he commented, at the end of the meeting with the minister, indicating to Lusa that he is Secretary of State Inês dos Santos Costa “showed openness to find the best solution”.
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The mayor said, on the other hand, that a new meeting was agreed, within a month, in which the Government “should now proceed with a concrete solution”.
Until then, added Vítor Hugo Salgado, the Ministry of the Environment will be able to analyze all the information that the chamber has collected on the pollution of the Vizela River, which was transmitted in this meeting to the Secretary of State, namely the results of analyzes carried out on the river water and images captured next to the alleged polluting focus.
For the mayor, the definitive resolution of the pollution in that tributary of the Ave river involves the construction of an emissary that connects the wastewater treatment plant of Serzedo, in the municipality of Guimarães, which Vizela says is the main polluting focus, to the station Lordelo’s treatment plant, a few kilometers downstream, also in Guimarães.
The publicly-held company Águas do Norte, which manages the two treatment plants, today recalled the mayor, recently drew up a project for the construction of the outfall, but it remains to secure the necessary financing for its construction, with an estimated cost of 5, EUR 5 million.
For Vítor Hugo Salgado, if the Government wants to end this problem permanently, it must create financial conditions for the construction of the emissary, a decision that “Vizela will applaud if it occurs”.
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“Within a month, we hope to have good news for our river Vizela”, concluded the mayor.
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