The President of Loulé Municipal Council, Telmo Pinto, sent to the Minister of Environment and Energy, Maria da Graça Carvalho, a formal position from the Municipality regarding three regional-level infrastructures that weigh on the municipality: the potential installation of new incineration capacity or reinforcement of urban waste co-incineration at the CIMPOR Production Centre, in Loulé; the future of the Sotavento Algarvio Landfill, in Salir; and the Algarve Seawater Desalination Plant, under construction in Albufeira, with effects on the Loulé coastline. The Council also requested an urgent meeting with the minister and relevant technical services.
Loulé acknowledges the scale of the Algarve's environmental challenges and wants to be part of the solution, but refuses to accept that the response to the region's problems continues to involve the successive concentration of facilities with significant impacts in the same territories. "Loulé is not, and will not be, a territory of unlimited availability to receive what no one else wants. We have hosted the region's landfill for over two decades, we have a desalination plant next door whose effects on our sea are yet to be demonstrated, and now they want us to accept burning the Algarve's waste. Regional solidarity cannot mean the permanent overloading of the same territories and the same populations."
The Municipality's position is clear: Loulé unequivocally opposes the installation of new urban waste incineration capacity, or any significant reinforcement of existing co-incineration at the CIMPOR Production Centre, especially when intended for treating waste from other municipalities. Concerns include atmospheric emissions, more heavy trucks, waste storage, fire risk, water consumption in a water-scarce region, and public health. The municipality argues that incineration does not solve the problem of prevention and selective collection, advocating for the European waste hierarchy that prioritizes prevention, reuse, and recycling.
The Sotavento Algarvio Landfill, in Salir, has received waste from a large part of the Algarve for over two decades. The Council has identified issues such as leachate discharges, water quality problems, and geotechnical instability. It requests an independent verification of compliance with the conditions for the new Cell D and a credible calendar for reducing landfill disposal, warning that successive expansions in Loulé cannot become the permanent solution to a regional problem.
Loulé does not oppose the desalination plant, recognizing the need for new water sources due to the drought. However, it demands that the project, scheduled for completion in 2028, protect the beaches, fishing, and local economy. The municipality requests access to the execution project, saline plume models, and monitoring results, arguing that desalination should be the last line of defense, after water efficiency and reuse.
The municipality argues that the Algarve, Portugal's main tourist destination, sells nature, clean seas, and quality of life. Each waste truck, each plume in the sea, or an additional chimney represents a risk to the Algarve brand, the employment it depends on, and nature-based, quality tourism. Protecting the environment is seen as a condition for sustainable development, and Loulé is advancing with the Integrated Management Plan for its protected areas.
The Loulé Municipal Council demands that the Government not promote new incineration capacities in Loulé, promote independent verification of the Sotavento Landfill, provide information on the desalination plant and ensure municipal participation, and conduct an integrated assessment of environmental infrastructure distribution in the Algarve based on territorial equity. The municipality calls for reciprocal solidarity and integration in all decisions with environmental, territorial, or economic impact on the municipality.
The municipality concludes that decisions on waste, water, and territory will shape the Algarve for decades, advocating for a model of reduction, separation, and recycling with territorial justice, rather than concentrating environmental burdens in the same locations. Loulé wants to lead this change but refuses to pay the bill alone.
