New WWTP, Faro/Olhão invests 22 million to treat sewage with … – South Information

“A day of great satisfaction”: this was the dominant note of the speech of the mayors present at the ceremony of laying the first stone of the new Station of Treatment of Waste Water of the Faro-Olhão inlet. It fell to Carlos Manuel Martins, secretary of State of the Environment and ex-president of the Board of Directors of Águas do Algarve – place the first three bricks of a work that should be completed by the end of 2018.

The new wastewater TREATMENT plant, located next to the Ria Formosa, will serve 113 200 inhabitants of the municipalities of Faro, Olhão and São Brás de Alportel, cost close to 22 million euros and to use an innovative technology, which Carlos Manuel Martins even helped develop.

“This wastewater TREATMENT plant will use a technolo gy that I own, as president of the Sintejo, I have promoted a process of research and development and which does so much good evidence already given, more at international level than national. This is the work of great feedback, made from the root, which will use this technology, after the pilot study that was done in the WWTP Frielas”.

According to Carlos Manuel Martins, “the technological solution that existed here greatly depended on the nature, because the human intervention in the management and operation was of low level. If there was a situation more turbulent, there were few mechanisms to respond quickly to these circumstances. What are we going to here do is a process more industrialised, whether by physical, either via chemical or mechanical, with the capacity of human intervention, so that, in time, we can fix any situation that arises, such as that which is typical in the Algarve: the seasonality”.

The secretary of State added that this new wastewater TREA TMENT plant will allow treatment of the “larger loads, a larger flow rate”, also giving a greater guarantee of the quality of the water discharged at the end of the process. “We are talking about a system far more sophisticated, capable and flexible,” she said.

The importance of this work was highlighted in particular by the mayors of the municipalities that will take advantage of it. Teresa Correia, delegate of the Chamber of Faro, says that the new WWTP comes “to solve a problem that for years and years is in degradation. The Ria Formosa was threatened because of a problem that dragged on and I had to solve”.

Already, António Pina, president of the Chamber of Olhão, considered this “a day of great satisfaction for all, in particular for lovers of the Ria Formosa”. The mayor highlighted the role of Carlos Manuel Martins at the launch of the work, a time that, when the process was launched, this was the president of the Board of Directors of the company Águas do Algarve: “the merit of the decision it is up to you, and to always be tied to this decision.”

Already Vítor Guerreiro, mayor of São Brás de Alportel, stated that this was “an important moment for the Algarve” and that allows a region “more clean, more attractive and better for all.”