During a public meeting, Mayor Manuel Sequeira announced today that on Sunday a third leak was detected and immediately reported. This occurred due to a “blockage at Praça Dr. Manuel Arriaga around 3:00 PM, caused by technical issues”.
The beach remains closed to swimming until the results of tests on the bathing waters are available.
In August, the municipality of Leiria district filed a complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office to investigate two wastewater discharges that closed the beach to swimmers and resulted in over a hundred people receiving medical assistance due to water contamination.
The complaint, filed against unknown parties, requests an investigation into the circumstances leading to the blockage of a sewer line and the resulting sewage discharges onto the beach, which occurred twice at the end of July and in the second week of August.
The incidents necessitated the closure of Nazaré beach on August 1 and August 13.
Following the first incident, 116 individuals were treated at the Local Health Unit of the Leiria Region for symptoms related to water contamination.
In a statement to the Lusa agency, the mayor expressed “suspicions of various kinds,” including the possibility of “some illegal constructions [connected to the pipeline] that harm the quality of water reaching the storm drain.”
Manuel Sequeira stated that the administration has evidence that “water exits the last inspection chamber in clear, transparent condition, but reaches the storm drain in poorer condition,” suspecting that the issue may be linked to old illegal constructions.
Another possible cause, according to Sequeira, could be the “introduction of inappropriate products into the plumbing,” such as “oils, fats,” allegedly from restaurants.
The Nazaré City Council, considering an audit of these issues, seeks the Public Prosecutor’s assessment to “determine if there is grounds for investigation” and to initiate legal proceedings.
Once conclusions are available, an extraordinary meeting of the executive will be scheduled to assess the condition of the pipelines, which are about 60 years old and, according to the mayor, no longer meet the demand caused by seasonal population increases.
Manuel Sequeira, who is not running for another term, has urged candidates for the city council in the October 12 municipal elections to prioritize the replacement of the pipelines, an undertaking estimated to cost around two million euros.
