ZERO Pollution beaches are beaches with “excellent” water quality and without any trace of microbiological contamination in the analyses carried out on the bathing water over the last three bathing seasons.
The environmental association ZERO has identified the Portuguese beaches that, over the last three bathing seasons, not only always had an “Excellent” rating in terms of water quality, but also had no microbiological contamination detected in the analyses carried out on the bathing water. In total there are 59 “ZERO Pollution Beaches”, equivalent to 9% of all bathing waters, an increase of 1%, with five more beaches than last year.
These beaches are spread across 31 municipalities on the mainland and the islands of Madeira and the Azores, with only one inland beach remaining – Santa Clara, in Odemira. Compared to last year, 18 beaches were removed from the list and 23 new ones were added.
In astatement,ZERO considers that the goal achieved this year “is truly what is desired on a European scale within the framework of the European Green Deal, in particular within the framework of the Zero Pollution Action Plan”.
The municipalities with the most ZERO Pollution beaches are São Roque do Pico and Vila do Bispo, with four beaches; Alcobaça, Aljezur, Faro, Lajes do Pico, Odemira, Porto Santo, Sesimbra, Tavira and Vila do Porto (Santa Maria – Azores), with three beaches.
The municipalities of Calheta, Lajes do Pico, Leiria, Machico, Pombal, Ponta Delgada, Povoação and Santa Cruz da Graciosa are now also among those with at least one ZERO Pollution beach.
ZERO warns that “most of the time, because of a single analysis in which the presence of microorganisms was detected, even very far from the limit value, they can no longer be considered ZERO Pollution beaches”.
The association also points out that “it is extremely difficult to achieve an unblemished record over three years in inland bathing areas, which are much more susceptible to microbiological pollution. With the exception of one “inland” beach, all the other beaches are “coastal”. This is an indicator of how much remains to be done to ensure good water quality in rivers and streams in Portugal, which requires additional efforts in terms of urban sanitation and companies.”
While the Azores stand out on the positive side, with 21 ZERO Pollution beaches this year (36% of the total), ZERO points out, on the negative side, the municipality of Albufeira which, “despite having 25 beaches that should be validated with an excellent classification in terms of water quality, had its six ZERO Pollution beaches removed from the list this year due to at least one analysis on each of these beaches that had an extremely low upper value, but higher than zero”.
The ZERO classification was based on data from the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA). All the analyses of the ZERO pollution beaches showed values of zero or below the detection limit in all the analyses carried out for the two microbiological parameters controlled and provided for in the legislation (Escherichia coli andIntestinal enterococci), i.e. no colony-forming units were detected.
The full list of ZERO Pollution beaches can be found on the ZERO website.
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