Government authorizes expenditure to replace sand between Quarteira and Garrão

The resolution was published today in the Official Gazette .

The work, already announced by the Minister of the Environment, Maria da Graça Carvalho , should take place from the end of the bathing season and will be financed by the European Cohesion Fund and the national Environmental Fund , to the value of 14.2 million euros, the government specified in the resolution published today and signed by the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, dated July 24.

The project at hand involves restoring sand along a 6.6-kilometre stretch of coastline between Quarteira and Garrão, in the district of Faro, within the "integrated management of the Algarve's coastal zone", which has as its strategic objectives the "prevention or reduction of the effects of natural risks, in particular those arising from climate change" and the implementation of "investment in coastal areas with greater vulnerability to risk".

The application for the Cohesion Fund was made under the Thematic Programme for Climate Action and Sustainability (PACS), which allows for actions to protect the coast and provides for "a maximum co-financing rate of 85%, with the national counterpart being supported by the APA", he added.

The APA proposed the contracting and execution of a project to artificially feed the coastal stretch between Quarteira and Garrão to "combat the retreat" of the sand in that area, which has seen, according to the government, an "increase in erosion associated with the construction of maritime works."

"The Artificial Feeding project on the Quarteira-Garrão coastal stretch aims to artificially ensure the saturation of the wave transport capacity, in order to mitigate the erosion of the sandy cliffs, with the dredging of sediments existing in the offshore borrow patch, and subsequent repulsion to the emerged area of the beach on a seafront of 6.6 km", the government specified in the resolution.

This project is also part of a set of actions proposed by the Vilamoura-Vila Real de Santo António (VRSA) Coastal Development Plan (POOC).

«Within the scope of the application that was submitted for the aforementioned project, financing was obtained from the Cohesion Fund, in the amount of 10,841,087.15 euros, and national financing was considered, to be executed by the APA , and supported by the Environmental Fund, in the amount of 3,426,974.35 euros, these amounts including value added tax at the legal rate in force», he quantified.

As this work will only be completed in 2026 and will give rise to "budgetary charges in a financial year other than the year in which it is carried out and the respective procedure is initiated", it is necessary to obtain authorization to carry out the expenditure and assume multi-annual charges through a resolution of the Council of Ministers, the government explained.

The APA is thus authorized to “incur the expenses and assume the respective multi-annual costs, including those arising from price reviews, in relation to the artificial feeding project for the Quarteira-Garrão section”.

This authorization goes "up to the total amount of 11,600,050.00 euros, to which value added tax (VAT) is added at the legal rate in force, making the final amount of 14,268,061.50 euros", he indicated.

The "national counterpart, of the amount provided for in the previous number, to be carried out by the APA, in the maximum amount of 3,426,974.35 euros, will be financed by funds to be transferred from the Environmental Fund", concludes the government.