This Tuesday, at a town hall meeting, the municipality of Leiria presented a plan for the rehabilitation and improvement of the city’s rainwater drainage system, which includes intervention in various areas in flood beds and aims to reduce flooding episodes in various parts of the urban fabric.
To be implemented by 2030, the document defines seven of the most critical areas that need intervention in the short term: Rua da Restauração and Rua Dr. António Costa Soares, Rua de São Miguel and Rua Emídio Agostinho Marques, Urbanização de São Romão, Rua D. José Alves Correia da Silva and Rua dos Romeiros, Rotunda D. Dinis, Telheiro and the historic center.
In the city center, the rehabilitation of the water main is planned, as well as the construction of pressure collectors and a pumping station in Largo Papa Paulo VI, which will lead and pump water directly into the River Lis whenever there is too much flow.
The plan also includes the creation of a protection dyke, the detour of flows and the reinforcement of the rainwater network in the area near the Dr. Magalhães Pessoa Municipal Stadium.
In addition to this planning, good practices in the development of public space are also defined, namely the control of flows at source, whose return is long term.
Examples include the creation of retention basins (depressions in the ground to retain water), the laying of permeable paving, the use of rainwater in buildings (sustainable construction), the installation of roofs and garden façades and the creation of wells and trenches that retain water before it enters the drainage system.
One of the other measures is the creation of a rainfall monitoring system, a pilot project that will install devices and flow meters in the drain that runs through the historic center.
The municipality’s strategy follows on from the flooding problems experienced in recent decades, which are the result of a lack of rainwater run-off, mainly due to limited collectors, a shortage of gravitational energy, a lack of effective protection, the silting up and obstruction of collectors by construction under buildings, and the failure to separate the drainage system from domestic wastewater.
The current investment forecast for this set of interventions is 8,284,604 euros.