The project involves an investment of 1.5 million euros that will allow for “sediment migration intervention to Praia do Vau, in Portimão”, as part of a project that “has just been awarded”, and has an estimated duration of 210 days and is scheduled to start from the end of the bathing season, the APA revealed in a statement.

With this technical intervention, the sediment circulation circuit will be “reversed, promoting the migration […] from the end of the circuit (the accumulation area of ​​Praia da Rocha) to its original location, where the erosion of the cliffs poses the greatest risk to beach users (the stretch between Praia do Vau and Praia dos Três Castelos),” indicates the agency that oversees the environment in Portugal.

The APA characterises the work as a “coastal protection” intervention, intended to replace sand on “beaches supported by cliffs” and “significantly” and temporarily “mitigate” the “erosion of the cliffs on the beaches of Careanos, Amado and Três Castelos,” along a stretch of coastline of 1,350 meters.

The environmental agency emphasises that, with the planned intervention, the sand between Praia do Vau and Praia da Rocha, in the municipality of Portimão, in the district of Faro, will also be expanded, ensuring that bathers have an area available “outside the risk zones of the cliffs.”

The cliffs on the Algarve coast are unstable and pose a risk of falling, and beach users should keep a safe distance to avoid being hit by a possible rockfall.

Landslides are caused by erosion and can occur in both winter and summer, as happened in August 2009 on Maria Luísa beach in Albufeira, which killed five people.

The APA also points out that the intervention will be carried out within the scope of the Burgau-Vilamoura Coastal Area Development Plan and is classified as a priority, within the scope of prevention and risk management interventions on the Algarve coast.

“The contract execution period is 210 days,” the APA also said, establishing the “end of the summer season of this year” as the deadline for the start of the works.