Tagus Clean-up Project

The Tagus estuary is located in Portugal where the transnational river with the same name meets the Atlantic Ocean, near the capital city of Lisbon and its metropolitan area. This estuary is the largest Portuguese wetland area and one of the most important in Europe, playing a fundamental role from the ecological and economic points of view. However, the concentration of densely urbanized areas and industrial clusters in the region originated environmental degradation that could only be curbed through combined efforts and integrated solutions.

By the intervention of AdP - Águas de Portugal Group, the Tagus Estuary Clean-up Project was carried out over 15 years and benefiting more than 3.8 million equivalent inhabitants, gathering together three wastewater companies and 19 municipalities surrounding the estuary. The project incorporates an integrated supra-municipal governance model that took into account the physical reality prevailing in the river basin, congregating skills, sharing management, rationalising investments and enabling economies of scale. 

The AdP Group was responsible for a 680 million euros investment, partially financed by the European Union and the European lnvestment Bank, covering an extensive set of interventions of high technical complexity that was crucial to ensure the appropriate interception of domestic and industrial sewage and its transport, treatment and return to the water cycle in environmentally safe conditions.

Today, the Tagus Estuary is served by sanitation systems that rank among the most modern and innovative in Europe and represent an international case study highlighted by the complexity of the work carried out in recent years on both shores of the Estuary, as well as by the excellent results achieved in terms of the reduction of pollutant discharges, the recovery of streams and biodiversity conservation.

Riverfronts have been restored for the public use, benefit and enjoyment, the river has become alive again and support to economic activities and Lisbon became European Green Capital 2020.


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