The engineering project, worth €180,000, is the result of a protocol signed in Alcácer do Sal, in the district of Setúbal, between the mayor of that municipality, Vítor Proença, and the president of the APA, José Pimenta Machado.

“It is an engineering project because, as you can imagine, it involves sediments, mud and this requires a rigorous analysis from a geological point of view of what is intended to be done” on the Sado River, Vítor Proença explained to Lusa news agency.

According to the mayor, this municipal council on the Alentejo coast will be the entity responsible for the project, with the support of the APA.

“This project will result in the execution” of the dredging and cleaning of the banks of the Sado River, over a distance of 1.1 kilometres, between the metal road bridge and the pedestrian bridge, and the municipality is also “available to carry out the work”, through financial support, he assured.

In addition to highlighting the “coordination between the central government and the municipalities” to solve these problems, the president of the APA, José Pimenta Machado, considered that this project would “improve the management of this section of the Sado River”, taking into account the importance of “water quality and flooding” during the winter.

“We understand that the climate is changing and that we will have more frequent and intense rainfall peaks and we need to prepare the territories, prepare the rivers and streams for this new reality”, he stated.

According to Vítor Proença, who warned the APA about the need to move forward with this intervention about two years ago, the “mechanics of the water” on this part of the city of Alcácer, with its “curves and counter-curves”, causes “very serious problems for the environment, for the defence of watercourses and for protection against floods”, as well as for navigability.

“We want it to move forward as quickly as possible, but the [process] will take months, because a project of this nature requires the preparation of pre-evaluation, evaluation and engineering studies”, he explained.

The project will cover “the entire riverbed”, which “must be studied using technologies that have never been used” locally, the mayor stressed.

The president of the APA assured Lusa that, once this study is completed, “the project for the dredging and cleaning” of this section of the river will be launched.

“We worked to finance the study and now we will also find financing to then move forward with the dredging project. Then we will see the best way to do it, either the municipality, with our support, or the APA”, through the Environmental Fund, he admitted.

Asked about the deadlines, Pimenta Machado said he is waiting for the study to be completed next year, pointing to July 2025 to “arrange conditions to launch the project”.

“We are at the beginning of Portugal 2030 and it will not be for lack of financing that this work will not be carried out and we really want it to happen”, he argued.