Portugal is far above the world average in the area of sanitation, says minister
We have a strategy to reuse 20% of the wastewater treated in the 25 largest WWTP in the country by 2030 ″, said the Minister of Environment and Climate Action, João Pedro Matos Fernandes.
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In Vila Real, at the seminar Sanitation – Resource Generating Activity, which marked the World Sanitation Day, the Minister of Environment and Climate Action, João Pedro Matos Fernandes, stated that Portugal “It’s way above the world average” in the area of sanitation.
During the occasion, Matos Fernandes highlighted that “It is absolutely essential to improve the quality of public health in the world that there is much greater care in the treatment of sewage”. The minister highlighted the “Extraordinary journey” traversed by Portugal between 1993, the year in which just over 25% of wastewater was treated, and today, with 85%. “We went from 640 hepatitis we caught drinking tap water in 1993 to zero in the last year. Therefore, what to advertise is, in fact, a work of which we are very proud ”, he added.
The Minister also said that a way must be found to apply what is left over in the systems, such as sludge from the water treatment plants (ETA), the sludge from the wastewater treatment plants (WWTP), the wastewater itself treated in the WWTP. .
“It’s not a waste, it’s a product. And we have to know how to find ways to apply that same product. Treated wastewater is water for many applications, it is not obviously for drinking or for brushing teeth, but for watering a garden, washing a street, watering permanent crops and there are already experiences in Portugal where this happens ”, he said.
In a country with soils “So scrawny”, with “So little organic matter” and “With such a large portion already at risk of desertification”, “It’s essential to look at these nannies and not trash them”, continued the Minister.
“There is already a being done, but it has to be increased in what is being done. We have a strategy to reuse 20% of the wastewater treated in the 25 largest WWTP in the country by 2030 ”, he stated.