The municipal alert status in Almada, proclaimed due to failures in water supply, will not be extended and will end next Monday, according to the Almada Municipal Water and Sanitation Services (SMAS).
In a response sent to the Lusa agency, the Almada SMAS explained that reservoir levels have remained above 70%, which allows the services to “face the current situation with greater calm, naturally maintaining regular monitoring of storage levels.”
Average storage levels have remained above 70%, which for SMAS and for the Almada City Council represents “some reassurance in terms of water management.”
The latest official update of these values reports Thursday, the day on which the water reserves in Almada stood at 77%, a figure that refers to the average total water reserve across the reservoirs in Brielas, Cassapo, Cristo-Rei, Feijó, Fonte Santa, Laranjeiro, Lazarim, Monte da Caparica, Murfacém, Pica Galo, Pragal, Trafaria and Raposo.
Since the beginning of July there have been repeated water supply outages in the municipality of Almada, with particular impact on Costa da Caparica, and the city council declared an alert status on July 8, which remains in place until the end of August.
The situation led to protests by residents.
In early August, Almada’s SMAS and the Almada-Seixal Local Health Unit released two distinct statements about the water quality in the municipality, indicating that it is safe for human consumption and that it remains in compliance with legal requirements.
“In the wake of information circulating about the water quality in the municipality of Almada, the SMAS clarify that the water supplied by the public water network remains suitable for human consumption, fully complying with the legal quality requirements,” the municipal services stated in a press release, adding that water quality control is carried out on a permanent basis.
This permanent analysis, they explained, is carried out through “a rigorous program of monitoring and operational control, complemented by sanitary surveillance ensured by the health authority, which has, from the outset, included the Crisis Office created to monitor the water supply situation in the municipality.”
The Almada Municipal Water and Sanitation Services stated that, within the framework of the alert status, they reinforced the number of sampling events and laboratory analyses, as well as the monitoring of residual chlorine levels and the tracking of new water sources integrated into the system, in accordance with the guidelines of the Regulatory Authority for Water and Waste Services (ERSAR).
“The results obtained consistently confirm that the water distributed by the public network remains compliant with the legal quality parameters for human consumption, and no situations presenting a risk to public health have been identified,” they maintained.
The Almada-Seixal Local Health Unit (ULSAS) indicated in its statement that, parallel to the operational control of water quality carried out by the SMAS, it strengthened the sanitary surveillance plan, with additional monitoring at several locations within the supply zones, including the monitoring of new water sources integrated into the system.
ULSAS added that the results of the monitoring conducted showed that “the water distributed through the public water supply network in the municipality of Almada remains in compliance with the legal quality requirements for human consumption, with no identified situations that would pose a risk to public health, particularly in terms of the transmission of disease-causing microorganisms.”
