Cascais, Lisbon, June 16, 2025 (Lusa) - Portuguese beaches will have off-season surveillance next year to try to prevent drowning deaths, the minister for the environment announced on Monday in Carcavelos, in the district of Cascais.
“We are also reviewing the plan so that next year, outside the bathing season, there will be more flexible lifeguard teams, more at weekends, depending on the weather, so that there is surveillance throughout the year,” said Maria da Graça Carvalho at the ceremony marking the official start of the bathing season at Carcavelos Beach, in the district of Lisbon.
Recalling that this year there were “deaths outside the bathing season, on beaches that were not supervised”, the minister said she wanted to “prevent this from happening again or, at least, minimise” the possibility of such an occurrence.
The minister stressed that, on the issue of lifeguard surveillance, she had spoken to the president of the federation of beach concessionaires, who “is in contact with all concessionaires and lifeguards” in the country, and there are no “problems at the moment”, with “more beaches being monitored than last year”.
“We have a total of 740 beaches, of which 605 are supervised, all of which are currently running smoothly, with no problems,” said Maria da Graça Carvalho, noting that the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) currently has the InfoÁgua website, which provides information on water quality, surveillance and “all information about the beaches”.
“Today there are no problems on any beach in the country, so it’s a good day. Let’s hope the summer continues like this,” she added.
The minister explained that the initiative in Carcavelos was intended to “mark the start of the bathing season”, which has already begun on coastal beaches across the country, most recently on the 14th on the northernmost beaches.
The choice fell on the municipality in the district of Lisbon, which started the bathing season on May 1, “because Cascais is an example not only in terms of water quality, because it carries out complementary monitoring to the Environment Agency (APA), but also in terms of lifeguard surveillance,” she explained.
The municipality led by Carlos Carreiras (PSD) “has surveillance on most beaches all year round” and also ensures “the quality of the sand” and “the speed with which it carries out work”.
“We started work here a year ago on a cliff at Praia da Bafureira, and work has already been carried out by the APA in conjunction with Cascais town council, so we wanted to come and mark the start of the bathing season here in Cascais,” she stressed.
The minister admitted that “the issue of water quality is a concern” and that “a lot of work is being done on this, not only in terms of monitoring, but also in terms of renaturalisation and the quality of rivers, because without quality rivers” there are no “good beaches”.
For Maria da Graça Carvalho, the district of Cascais is also an example in terms of bathing safety, and she appealed to bathers to “follow the instructions of the lifeguards and not to use beaches that are not supervised”, because “no one knows the sea, the rivers or the dams well enough, except the professionals”.
The minister also highlighted the work related to coastal erosion, through the Cohesion Fund, with €156 million, on the basis of which “around €77 million has already been awarded and is under way”.
In addition to the work on the cliff at Praia da Bafureira, in Cascais, which is nearing completion, “the largest project is in Figueira da Foz, costing over €20 million” and also in Espinho, Ílhavo, Furadouro but also “on the Costa da Caparica and the beaches of São João,” with an investment of “around €10 million,” she said.
“Then in the Algarve there are several works that are starting, Garrão and Vale de Lobo, Vau, we have now carried out an emergency operation in Fuzeta, which was completely left without sand after a storm in March, and so in a short space of time we managed to replace the sand, but then a more structural project will have to be carried out so that this does not happen again,” she added.
Two deaths, 14 rescues and 58 first aid operations on Portuguese beaches in May is the balance sheet drawn up by the National Maritime Authority (AMN) for the first month of the 2025 bathing season.
According to the AMN, between May 1–31, there were 14 rescues,
58 first aid interventions and two fatalities by drowning on Pedrógão beach, in the district of Leiria, an area that was not supervised at the time of the accident – on May 25 – as the bathing season only runs from June 7–September 14 on that beach.
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