The Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) has given its approval to the project that proposes the construction of a second airport in Lisbon on the grounds of the current Air Base No. 6 of the Portuguese Air Force in Montijo. The new infrastructure will serve to reduce the pressure on Humberto Delgado Airport in the Lisbon suburb of Portela, which has been overtaken by the increasing number of air passengers brought by the tourism boom that lives in the Portuguese capital, and will cost about 1,000 million euros, which will be mainly taken out of the fees charged by ANA - Portugal Airports.

The approval of the APA allows the Executive of António Costa to overcome one of the main obstacles to the construction of the second airport: its proximity to the Natural Reserve of the Tagus Estuary, a sanctuary for more than 50,000 winter waterfowl. The agency considers that the Government can guarantee the well-being of the protected environment by taking special measures - whose cost will be around 48 million euros - to safeguard the 2,500 hectares in which the species that could be affected by the infrastructure live.

However, a much greater environmental problem remains unresolved: the positioning of the new airport on the banks of the Tagus, in an area that could be underwater before 2050. According to a study by researchers at the University of Lisbon and revealed by TSF, forecasts about the rise in the mean sea level on the Portuguese coast over the next few years indicate that the current military base will be increasingly susceptible to flooding, and that eventually parts of the land will be reconquered by the river.

Speaking to the radio station Carlos Antunes, a geospatial engineering specialist at the Faculty of Science of the University of Lisbon and coordinator of the study, says that "it is a risk to build the airport there. In the medium term the average sea level will rise several meters, and it is not a trend that will stop at 2100 ".

Climate change

Antunes and other researchers point out that the project goes against international climate change adaptation strategies, principles that advocate abandoning existing infrastructure in risk areas. There is broad consensus that it is pointless to build new buildings that will be overcome by the effects of global warming in the near future.

Despite the experts' alerts and the possibility that a multi-billion dollar air project will end up being an underwater terminal, the Portuguese Executive maintains its plans to move forward with the construction of the airport as soon as possible. The Government is determined to continue expanding tourism in Portugal, and the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing, Pedro Nunes Santos, has not hesitated to affirm that it is necessary to strengthen the capital's air capacity to stop wasting "time, money and tourists" .

Although the Lisbon people are increasingly fed up with foreign visitors who are promoting a housing bubble in their neighborhoods, and despite the fact that last year the Humberto Delgado Airport broke the Portuguese records by registering more than 29 million passengers , it is wanted give more exits to the sector, and bring more and more people to a capital that previously boasted of having the own identity and custom of a small town.

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