The company Águas do Centro Litoral (AdCL) is pursuing investments totaling 5.5 million euros to make infrastructure in the Lis basin more resilient, following the accident at a lift station and the Kristin depression, it was announced today.
“We had the issue of the accident, which is a very dramatic situation for Águas do Centro Litoral, an event completely contrary to its nature, … but then Kristin came along, which imposed more wear on the systems as a whole,” said Filipa Alves, the chair of the board.
Filipa Alves spoke to journalists at the end of the latest meeting of the monitoring committee established to assess the fault, in August 2025, at the Monte Real lift station (Leiria), its impacts and the need for investments, held at the Coimbrão wastewater treatment plant.
On 12 August 2025, a fault at that lift station in the municipality of Leiria, managed by AdCL, forced the discharge of thousands of cubic meters of untreated effluent into the Lis River, which originates in the municipality of Leiria and discharges at Praia da Vieira (Marinha Grande), and into irrigation ditches.
The Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) estimated that between 20,000 and 25,000 cubic meters of raw sewage were released into the river.
On 28 January, the Kristin depression, which caused significant power outages, affected the operation of several infrastructures essential to the company’s water supply system.
Filipa Alves explained that the resilience measures planned to prevent further accidents were reinforced with additional mitigation measures, “to confer greater infrastructural and operational resilience.”
According to the president of AdCL, a “set of measures totaling around 5.5 million euros” was estimated to renew various equipment (pumps, generators, valves, or electrical panels), including automation, for “better monitoring of the performance and operation of the various equipment and facilities.”
“All of this will provide greater infrastructural resilience,” the official assured, noting that, from that amount, 4.1 million euros, “the vast majority already has a signed contract,” with some equipment delivered and others in the delivery phase.
In the remaining cases, the preparation of the procurement tender documents is underway.
Filipa Alves noted that operational resilience includes “improvements to communications systems, the logistics of equipment and spare parts,” with an analysis being conducted on the need for these latter items and for redundancy equipment, as well as their location.
The president of AdCL also noted that the Bed of the Lis River is eroding “certain banks in a more accelerated way,” a situation that may be linked “to a continuation of harsh winters.”
“Some cases [the company’s infrastructures] are actually close to being exposed. The banks have already been eroded and have even disrupted small roads along the river,” she warned, adding that the situation was reported to the APA, which was not represented at the monitoring committee meeting, so that it can “promote the regularization of the riverbed and banks.”
Warning that “this will only get worse,” Filipa Alves noted that the “competence for regularizing the banks” is not the function of AdCL.
“We are concerned, and it is evident that the exposure of our infrastructures can affect the transport of effluents. Obviously we do not want this to be at risk, and for that reason we are monitoring, trying to work with the APA to identify and pressure, and we were on the ground with them this summer, precisely to identify two or three more critical points,” she added.
AdCL is responsible for the multi-municipal water supply and sanitation system of the Centro Litoral in Portugal, covering 30 municipalities and a served population of 725,000.
The company operates four water treatment plants and seven other water treatment facilities, 204 water supply and sanitation lift stations, and 60 reservoirs, 69 wastewater treatment plants, and 1,250 kilometers of water mains and sewer outfalls.
