Although the water for us, inhabitants of developed countries, is a trivial matter, is it so meaningless for others? Although the planet is composed of 70% water, only a small percentage is drinkable water, which is not equally accessible to the entire population. This is the case in some African countries such as Ethiopia, which has a water deficit compared to European countries like Portugal. Water, for countries like ours, is so abundant that it is used for energy production while others do not have it to drink. Thinking a bit in this situation, we conclude that it is necessary to preserve and protect our water resources for the good of the community.

The same has not been happening in the river Almonda’s basin. The Almonda is a river that rises in the Serra de Aire, 5 km northwest of Torres Novas, on the slope of the Serra de Aire, near Almonda. In its 30-kilometer route it goes through the municipality of Torres Novas, the parish of Riachos and Golegã where it  empties itself into the right bank of the Tagus.

Twenty years ago, the river Almonda was a major contributor to pollution of river Tagus, but it still continues today with several sources of contamination affecting the quality of the water and the entire riverbed. The source of the pollution comes mainly from illegal discharges from a Wastewater Ttreatment Plant (WWTP) in Riachos, the use of pesticides and fertilizers in agriculture, among other problems, such as the existence of a factory near the source of the river.

Discharge Zone

The area most affected by this pollution has been Riachos, the only village of the municipality that has faced this problem for many years, with still has no solution in sight. According to the supervising authorities of the Ministry of Environment, “discharges of domestic effluents without treatment were detected” in some locations and the WWTP of Riachos “is considered the main source of pollution of the Vala das Cordas”, a tributary of the river Almonda, words cited by a Member of the newspaper “O Público”. All this pollution is usually visible when the wind blows from the south, making them feel bad odors released from this area, sometimes also mixed with the scent released by the Alcohol Plant.

Pollution in the basin of river Almonda

This problem has been the subject of discussions at the Riachos parish Town Hall. Several issues have been discussed especially the search for a solution to the Vala de Cordas. The President of the parish of Riachos, João Cardoso, in an interview with Journal Torrejano said that the Municipality and Parish have done everything possible to halt the degradation of this tributary river. It also stressed that hopes that the accession to the Waters of Ribatejo will solve “once and for all” the inability to treat these waters.

In recent years, there has been an improvement in the situation of the river Almonda after the entry into operation of the WWTP of Lapas and Torres Novas, even if all these efforts are insufficient to improve the situation and remained so throughout the degradation of an important resource for all of us, inhabitants of the municipality.