Alenquer cleans rivers to prevent flooding during winter

The Alenquer City Council has begun cleaning the Alenquer River and its tributaries within urban areas, responding to local demands to prevent flooding during the winter.

“The cleaning work carried out with brush cutters is well advanced,” this municipality in the Lisbon district explained to the Lusa news agency.

Using the municipality's own resources, work was carried out last week in Ribafria and is ongoing this week in Azedia, where it is necessary to "remove sediment deposited upstream of the Azedia bridge, thus seeking to increase the flow section and prevent flooding in that location."

The intervention is also taking place in Casais da Ribeira, where it is necessary to “carry out some specific interventions of pruning and felling of trees, along the intervention area”, and in Mato, where “vegetation was cut inside the river, with some excess vegetation deposited on the banks, which will be collected as soon as possible.

Despite being outside the urban perimeter, the sections of the river between Ribafria and Casais da Ribeira “have also been cleaned, thus seeking to improve the water drainage capacity, although the responsibility for the intervention is not exclusive to the Municipality”.

"Since the water line and the old National Road 9-4 run almost parallel, it was our choice to take on this burden, seeking to prevent flooding in a valley that has a notable history of this type of occurrence," the municipality explained.

In July, the municipality had not yet started cleaning work.

"As it rained later this year, this type of work was inevitably postponed, and it was necessary to address other issues, in order of priority," he explained at the time.

At the public meeting of the municipal executive on February 14, several residents of Barbas requested the intervention of the municipality, taking into account the problems existing in the Ribeira das Ceroulas, a tributary of the Alenquer River that runs through the town.

"The bridge pillar causes the waste carried by the river to become trapped, causing the water to overflow the banks, and we experience floods every year. The most severe was in 2021 because the water line isn't clean," explained Cláudia Pedro, one of the residents.

“We had knee-deep water inside our house and at my veterinary clinic, and we suffered serious damage, including doors and furniture that ended up in the trash,” the resident continued.

Residents and the Parish Union of Aldeia Galega da Merceana and Aldeia Gavinha confirmed that the problem has been dragging on “for many years” .

On days of heavy rainfall, and due to the fear of flooding, “no one sleeps” to take cars out of garages and freezers.

"The bridges block the flow of water when it rains more and should be replaced," they said, confirming that flooding has occurred in several years, such as 2006 and 2021.

The Espiçandeira stream is a tributary of the Alenquer River, with a watershed encompassing the towns of Palaios, Pereiro de Palhacana, and Soeiro Cunhado. From the S. Miguel Cemetery, the stream carves its way through limestone rocks, running for eight kilometers through a valley until it meets the Alenquer River near the town of Estalagem.

In this section, it passes through the towns of Ribafria, Mato, Azenha das Machadas, Azedia, Casais da Ribeira and Espiçandeira.

The Alenquer River also has as tributaries the Ota, Caldeira, Ceroulas, Ossa and Pancas rivers.

Cleaning rivers is the responsibility of municipalities within urban areas and of neighboring landowners in other areas.