The environmental association Cero recognized this year 54 Zero Pollution beaches in Portugal, four less than last year, spread over 26 municipalities and including one with inland bathing waters, in Odemira, it was announced this Monday.
On the eve of the official opening of 205 spas (June 1), the association pointed out that this summer Zero Pollution beaches represent 8% of the total 658 spas in the country (with or without surveillance), a reduction of seven percentage points from 2022. Last year, when there were 654 bathing waters, 58 beaches were rated zero.
The municipalities with the largest number of Zero Pollution beaches are now Albufeira, with six; Porto Santo, Tavira and Vila do Bispo with four each; and Alcobaça, Aljezur, Faro, Odemira, Sesimbra and Vila do Porto, with three each.
Matosinhos, Torres Vedras and Vila Real de Santo António became part of the municipalities with at least one beach on this list, with a total of 17 beaches leaving the list and 13 joining it.
The municipalities of Esposende, Loulé, Peniche, Sabugal and Vila do Conde are no longer represented.
According to zero, There are 41 distinguished beaches on the mainland (in 18 municipalities), Eight beaches in the Azores (six municipalities) and five beaches in Madeira (two municipalities).
On the plus side, the association deserves a mention for the addition of another beach in Albufeira, adding to the five existing last year, and the move from one to three beaches in Odemira, one of which is inland, Santa Clara Beach.
A Zero Contamination beach is one in which microbiological contamination has not been detected in the analyzes carried out on the bathing waters of the last three bathing seasons, highlighting that Zero is “extremely difficult” to achieve a record unscathed for three years in areas of interior, “much more susceptible to microbiological contamination”.
The environmentalists recall the importance of what “still needs to be done to guarantee good water quality in rivers and streams in Portugal, which requires additional efforts in terms of urban sanitation and companies”, taking into account that 53 of the zero beaches of pollution their are coastal.
A Zero Pollution beach is so named based on data from the Portuguese Environment Agency, which identifies the beaches that, in the last three bathing seasons (in this case, 2020, 2021 and 2022), not only always had a “ Excellent” but showed values of zero or less than the detection limit in all the analyzes carried out on the two microbiological parameters controlled and provided for in the legislation (Escherichia coli and intestinal Enterococci).
Source: Observadora
