Beaches. 17 swimming bans between May and July

Between May and July 2025, 17 bathing bans were declared on beaches in mainland Portugal, 14 due to microbiological contamination, two due to salmonella and one as a precaution, covering a total of 16 seaside resorts, reported the Zero association.

According to the environmental association, this data represents a decrease to almost half the number of bathing areas with similar problems last year: 31.

According to Zero, there are currently 673 bathing waters whose monitoring is reported, with a “limited number of beaches revealing problems”.

In mainland Portugal, where there are 526 bathing waters, between May and July, there were 34 warnings against bathing, three more than in 2024, 21 of which were due to microbiological contamination, affecting a total of 27 bathing waters.

In the Autonomous Region of Madeira, there have been four cases of swimming being advised against, according to Zero, while in the Azores, available data indicates the absence of any restrictions.

In August, there were already 13 situations where bathing was advised against or prohibited, five of which were proven to be due to microbiological contamination.

In these bathing areas where microbiological contamination was found, Zero reports that there was “exceeding of the limits technically established at national level in relation to at least one of the two microbiological parameters that are evaluated (Escherichia coli and intestinal Enterococci)”.

The beach that presented the highest number of situations of water unsuitable for swimming was Matosinhos, with three situations where swimming was advised against or prohibited and one situation where it was closed for almost two weeks.

According to Zero, the problems affecting the bathing water in Angeiras Norte, also in the municipality of Matosinhos, where there was a period in which bathing was not advised and the beach was also closed, led to this municipality being the one where the greatest water quality problems were identified in the country.

According to the environmental association, the situation observed in recent days on Nazaré beach, where a discharge associated with the sanitation system led more than 100 people to health services, "is a clear warning for the responsible entities to make a greater effort to avoid this type of risk of contamination of nearby beaches."

In the case of the beaches of Angeiras Norte, in Matosinhos, and Labruge, in Vila do Conde, and according to the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA), “it was industrial discharges” into the Onda River that would affect beaches adjacent to the mouth, “showing how important it is for companies to monitor and comply with rules regarding wastewater.”

Regarding what happened in the Algarve, the warnings issued on the beaches of Alagoa — Altura and Praia Verde, both in the municipality of Castro Marim — show, according to Zero, that it is necessary, "despite the already enormous sampling effort on a national scale, to supplement it with additional samples."

The environmental association believes that on these and other beaches "with a low frequency of sample collection due to a history of excellent quality, there may be undetected episodes of pollution."

None of the 81 beaches classified by the association as Zero Pollution Beaches (bathing areas where no contamination was detected in analyses carried out over the last three bathing seasons) were subject to a warning or ban associated with exceeding microbiological parameters, according to all the data available.

The data was collected by Zero based on the monthly situation reports carried out by the APA and the General Directorate of Health (DGS) for bathing waters in mainland Portugal.