en 
Boats will be able to travel along the river between Vila Real de Santo António and Mértola thanks to the €6 million project.
“This is one of the most emblematic investments of the Ministry of the Sea,” because it “promotes the navigability of the Guadiana” and simultaneously “the development of the entire region,” said the Minister for the Seas, Ana Paula Vitorino.
The minister spoke to journalists after the signing of a contract for the dredging and installation of maritime signalling along the Guadiana river between Alcoutim and Pomarão.
The contract represents the third phase of the project and works are due to start “later this month”, and are to last three months said the minister.
As part of the project, the Directorate General of Natural Resources, Safety and Maritime Services (DGRM) highlighted that two phases have already been completed, making it possible to make two Guadiana international zones navigable, the area between the entrance of the Vila Real of Santo António and the international bridge and the section between Vila Real de Santo António and Alcoutim in the Algarve.
During the ceremony, a protocol was also signed between DGRM and Câmara de Mértola to study and find the appropriate solution for the navigability of the exclusively Portuguese section between Pomarão and the town of Mértola.
According to the minister, the section between Pomarão and Mértola “is more complex” than the previous ones from geological and environmental points of view, being as it is “in a protected area of the Guadiana” and, therefore, the preparation of the project “will take a little more time “.
“Hopefully it will go well,” and once the environmental impact statement is issued,” the DGRM will launch the public tender to carry out the project” on the stretch between Pomarão and Mértola, said Ana Paula Vitorino.
“We are bringing the sea up to Mértola [in the interior of the Alentejo] and taking Mértola to the sea” concluded the minister.
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Dear Sir, Concerning the New Navigation marks on the rio Guadiana. A navigation aid or hazard? Although the marks are lit at night they are not lit when visibility is bad due to fog which is very common on the river. This morning I came down in my own yacht and I was suddenly in a total white out! I could follow the starboard bank but had unlit posts to avoid. This should be addressed soon, as some posts have already been hit. Best regards
By Sirch from Algarve on 13 Jan 2020, 15:00
When Minister for the Seas for Portugal states that the €6 million of national and EU money is to "make the Guadiana navigable" she illustrates perfectly the essential qulifications for Minister in all our anti-democraties, i.e total ignorance of the matter for which she is Minister. The Guadiana has been reported as navigable since the Phoenicians, 3000 years ago. The last commercial traffic on the river was by ore boats serving the mines near Portimão which closed over half a century ago . They no more needed signposting on the river than any of those who have travelled it since: small sail and fishing boats and the odd small excursion boat from VRSA or Ayamonte. Before the blinding out of night vision by the absurdly bright lights on the €6 million posts, all of us could sail the river blindfolded. Typical of our anti-democraties, NONE OF US WERE CONSULTED. The truth of the matter (concealed of vourse) is that "development" means bringing to the Guadiana the sort of monstrous cruise ships that now dock regularly in Cádiz. It is now generally recognised that package tourism is the most polluting industry in the world, gar worse than nuclear, oil, chemicals . . . A project to take those ships, the maximum pollution concentrators, up the Guadalquivir was stopped by the influential lobby of that richly agricultural region. There is no such lobby on the Gusd
which, although all the shores are classified as agricultural land and un-buildable are a-building with ugly little villas every day - to the satisfaction of the pockets of the authorities involved. What Vitorino wants is "development" , i.e. a river a-scream with wet bikes and solid on the Portuguese side with the same hideous , empty, never-to-be-finished blocks of flats that line the Spanish shore just upstream of the Ayamonte-VRSA bridge - to the greater satisfaction of the politicians' offshore bank accounts. The Rio Guadiana has been temporarily only by the God-sent Covid.
By Malcolm from Algarve on 12 Oct 2020, 23:04