By Green Savers (31 May 2022)
In 2022 Portugal had 58 "ZERO pollution" beaches, 5 more beaches than the previous year, which corresponds to 9% of the bathing areas in the country. This means that, in these beaches, the waters did not have any microbiological contamination throughout the three bathing seasons of 2019, 2020 and 2021.
The analysis is carried out by ZERO - Sustainable Earth System Association, which is based on the data made available by the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA), to assess whether in the period under review the beaches obtained an "excellent" classification, and if they presented 0 values in the detection of organisms of the species Escherichia coli and Intestinal Enterococci. As explained by the Association, the presence of these organisms, even in low quantities, directly leads to the declassification of the beach in question.
This list includes 57 coastal beaches and 1 inland beach, 46 of which are in continental Portugal, 8 in the Azores Archipelago and 4 in the Madeira Archipelago. The municipalities that dominate this classification are in the south of the country: Abufeira and Aljezur, with 5 beaches each and Tavira with 4 beaches. Evaristo beach in Albufeira, Barril beach in Tavira, Arrifana beach in Aljezur, Foz do Lizandro beach in Mafra, Grande beach in Sintra, Bicas beach in Sesimbra, Albufeira de Alfaiates in Sabugal, Alteirinhos beach in Odemira, and Afife beach in Viana do Castelo, are some of the highlighted beaches.
Get to know all the ZERO pollution beaches of 2022 in the list provided by ZERO.
