Regional Government presents 2024 Report on the State of Azorean Streams - Communication

Secretaria Regional do Ambiente e Ação Climática

The Regional Secretariat for the Environment and Climate Action (SRAAC) presented today the 2024 Report on the State of Azorean Streams (RERA) in Ponta Delgada.

The Regional Secretary for the Environment and Climate Action, Alonso Miguel, explained that ‘the Report on the State of Azorean Streams is a strategic tool for monitoring and planning desilting, cleaning, maintenance and requalification operations in our streams. This is increasingly relevant, especially when climate change effects have been clearly felt" in the Region.

The Regional Secretary emphasised that "clean and unobstructed streams, combined with good environmental practices on the part of the population, are fundamental for reducing the flood risk, slope movements and other hazards. It is a decisive contribution to safeguarding the population and avoiding significant material and financial damage."

The government official recalled that "RERA identifies and prioritises interventions in water lines, according to the urgency, severity and type of occurrence. These aspects are essential from a management standpoint, given the extension of the regional hydrographic network, which exceeds seven thousand kilometres and includes 727 river basins.

Alonso Miguel stated that the Regional Secretariat's technical and operational teams covered more than 600 kilometres of water lines and assessed 234 hydrographic basins in 2024, i.e. around 1/3 of the total number of basins in the region. This resulted in 562 records being made and 301 incidents being identified in the Region.

"Given its size and the extent of the hydrographic network, the island of São Miguel was the most affected, with 145 incidents identified. There were also 45 incidents registered on the island of Graciosa, which is a significant figure and even exceeds the 36 incidents registered on the island of Terceira. It is more than double the number of incidents registered on islands such as Pico, Faial and Santa Maria," he said.

The government official revealed that "about 79% of the incidents registered fall into less serious categories, with the majority of incidents classified as more serious being on the islands of Santa Maria, Graciosa and Pico." He also pointed out that the ‘’silting-up of stream sections remains the most frequent type, accounting for almost 40% of all incidents registered in the Azores in 2024."

Alonso Miguel also highlighted ‘the reduction in the number of incidents related to waste dumping in streams over recent years. In 2024, this became the second least frequent type of incident in the Region in percentage terms, reflecting a positive evolution in terms of people's awareness of the importance of environmental preservation."

The Regional Secretary underlined the Regional Government's firm commitment in this area. This has been achieved by "strengthening the human, material and financial resources allocated to the cleaning and maintenance of our water lines, with large annual investments in public works and the acquisition of services for the restoration and maintenance of the regional hydrographic network. It also involves strengthening the operational teams and the Nature Rangers Corps in the region, along with other significant investments such as training and the acquisition of operational equipment.

Alonso Miguel announced that "a procedure, amounting to 3.5 million Euros, is under preparation. The aim is to provide the SRAAC operational services with adequate means and equipment for the preventive maintenance of water lines and increase the response capacity to events, especially following extreme weather events, which will also make an important contribution in this area."

The government official concluded by recalling "the significant increase made under the Eco-Parish Programme, which has more than doubled its allocation since 2022, with a sum of up to one million Euros. This has enabled Parish Councils to collaborate even more closely with the Regional Government cleaning and maintaining our streams."