The Secretary of State for the Portuguese Environment said today that those responsible for the appearance of white foam on the Tejo (Tagus), in the Abrantes region, are still unknown, and that "all measures taken are just a precaution. "This event follows the thousands of dead fish in the Tagus a few months ago. Bob, the Expats Personal Assistant in Portugal, tells you everything.
Analyzes still in progress
Speaking to reporters in the early afternoon in the Açude de Abrantes, district of Santarém, Carlos Martins stressed that it will be necessary to await the results of the analysis. Then it will be possible to associate or not this situation to the activity of industrial facilities working on the upstream Tagus. The governor explained that the analyzes will be completed on Wednesday and that a report will be made next week.
"We still do not know what caused this event, we study them and take precautionary measures to reach the source"
Pollution of the Tagus with still unknown origins
Carlos Martins took note of the opinion given by the Portuguese Government regarding the company Celtejo (without ever mentioning the name of the paper processing company) to reduce its emissions in the Tagus River:
"The recommendations were respected: they are precautionary measures and they are no longer linked to a particular situation of mistrust vis-à-vis the flows rejected, and the analyzes will say yes or no to any association between the two situations"
On the other hand, the Secretary of State for the Environment stated that two other monitoring stations were created to monitor the water quality of the Tagus River and that the time interval between each measure was reduced:
"There were five stations that monitored every 48 hours and now check every day," he said. According to the manager, "We now have a minimum of work". "I want to emphasize here the very active collaboration of firefighters who helped in the faster removal of the foam"
Thousands of dead fish in the Tagus
The removal of the foam that covers the Tejo in Abrantes, the reduction of the activity of the company Celtejo and the removal of sediments from the reservoir fund were announced Friday in Abrantes by the government because of the recent pollution of the river .
It is recalled that in October 2017, thousands of fish died in the Tagus, raising even more suspicions about an industrial pollution of the River rather than a more natural cause.
You can see here a video of the pollution recorded in the Tagus.
For now, there is no ban on swimming in the Tagus.
