Speaking to the Lusa news agency, Almeirim Deputy Mayor Filipe Torres said today that these efforts have intensified after issues encountered last winter, when heavy rain revealed obstructions, diversions, and the disappearance of certain watercourses, as well as inadequacies in existing hydraulic crossings.

The interventions include a project—costing approximately 300,000 euros—to rehabilitate about 40 kilometres of rural roads. This involves clearing ditches, improving drainage, and replacing around 30 hydraulic crossings that were either damaged or undersized.

According to Filipe Torres, the local authority aims to prevent water from flowing over agricultural roads, which washes away material and forms deep ruts—forcing the municipality to do repetitive levelling work every year.

“If we can ensure that water flows where we want it to—through ditches, crossings, and eventually into the watercourses—it won’t end up on the road,” he stated.

The total investment amounts to approximately 600,000 euros. Beyond work on watercourses, it also covers repairs for damage caused by severe weather and the restoration of structures affected by flooding near the National Road 114 (Estrada Nacional 114).

Filipe Torres added that work is also being conducted on three or four hydraulic crossings in urban areas—structures that were previously “obstructed, damaged, or undersized” for the volume of water now experienced during periods of heavy rain. In rural areas, the municipality identified dozens of problems along the district’s main watercourses—a landscape the mayor described as “flat, low-lying, and with few drainage outlets.”

Water flows through these channels into valleys and ditches, eventually reaching the Tagus River; therefore, any obstruction can hinder drainage and exacerbate flooding.

The vice-president noted that cleaning and maintaining these water channels is the responsibility of the owners of the adjacent land, who may also be held liable for any diversions or obstructions.

However, at this stage, the municipality has opted for an “educational” approach, deploying municipal machinery and workers to help property owners carry out the necessary interventions.

“We didn’t want to come into conflict with people. We want these issues resolved now—while it’s still possible to address them—so that when winter arrives, we don’t face the same problems we’ve had in the past,” he stated.

The strategy involves personnel from the municipal civil protection, public works, and environmental departments, who are in the field identifying bottlenecks and overseeing the interventions.

According to Filipe Torres, in many instances, property owners themselves are reaching out to the municipality to report issues with the water channels.

Despite the ongoing work, the official acknowledged that the municipality will not be fully protected by the coming winter, admitting that other, as-yet-unidentified issues are likely to emerge.

“We will be better prepared, but the work is certainly not finished,” he said, adding that the monitoring of water channels and ditches must be an ongoing process.

In addition to these immediate interventions, the local government is surveying the stormwater drainage network—primarily in the town of Almeirim and the parish of Fazendas de Almeirim—to understand better the system and plan medium- and long-term infrastructure projects.

Filipe Torres explained that the existing network was designed several decades ago and no longer meets current needs because of increased impermeable surfaces and rainfall that is more concentrated over shorter periods. The municipality intends to study the possibility of diverting some water to other basins or outlets, which would relieve lower-lying areas that are frequently affected; however, the official cautioned that redesigning the urban drainage network would entail large-scale construction, high costs, and disruptions for the population.

“Urban flooding will not disappear. We have to deal with it,” he concluded.

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