The red flag was hoisted on the two beaches at about 3 pm on Wednesday.
Subsequently, the Vila Real de Santo António City Council attributed the presence of coliforms in the water to a boat discharge and announced that the municipality will carry out independent analyzes.
“At 15:00, we had water of excellent quality on the APA website [nas duas praias] and, at 15:15, they publish this situation that appeared a higher than normal level of fecal coliforms. And then they sent a recommendation here to say that bathing was not advisable. It is not forbidden, it is not advisable ”, distinguished on the occasion the mayor, Conceição Cabrita.
The mayor said that she had spoken with officials from the Portuguese Environment Agency, which carries out the water analysis, and with the captain of the port of Vila Real de Santo António “to say that she did not understand why the red flag has to be raised”, when there was no ban.
Conceição Cabrita said she received the reply that “in these situations the red flag must always be raised” and added that the autarchy was waiting for the counter-analysis that the APA would carry out and the result of which was now known, lifting the restrictions that had been in the two bathing areas.
The president stressed that in the municipality “there is currently no sewage going out to the sea” and that “there are no more pits in restaurants” when the beach renovation work was done and the wooden walkway that protects the dunes was built, so if there was contamination, as the APA points out, it “was external”.
“It could have been, for example, a boat that unloaded, because it is strange to have only in Vila Real de Santo António and Monte Gordo. If it were a sewage contamination, with the tides I would have to go to more places and to the municipality of Castro Marim ”, he said.
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