Fifty Tonnes Of Dead Fish Removed From Drought-Hit Portuguese Reservoir
Municipal workers aided by soldiers have removed 50 tonnes of dead fish from a reservoir at a dam in drought-hit southern Portugal which is at 30 percent of its capacity, officials said Thursday. The mayor of the nearby town of Ourique, some 250 kilometres (150 miles) south of Lisbon, said the dead fish starting being removed from the edge of the dam on Tuesday and the clean-up operation would likely continue for another two weeks. "There are as many dead fish as those which have already removed," Antonio Afonso told reporters during a visit to the dam, the national news agency Lusa reported. "If during the operation it is concluded that there still are too many fish in the reservoir, we will have to remove live fish," he added. The first dead fish started appearing at the Monte da Rocha dam on Friday. The fish are dying from a lack of oxygen and the high water temperatures caused by the low water level in the reservoir, environmentalists said. The dam supplies water to Ourique but its quality has not been affected by the abundance of dead fish, the mayor said. Firefighters and boats would be brought in over the coming days to speed up the removal of the dead fish, which are being buried in surrounding farmland, he added. Portugal is facing its worst dry spell since the 1940s. Virtually all of the country, 97 percent, is suffering a severe or extreme drought, according to agriculture ministry figures. The dry spell has hurt crops and led to the death of hundreds of farm animals because of a lack of pasture. The drought has caused over one billion euros (1.2 billion dollars) in damage and losses to farmers since September. All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse. Related Links SinoDaily Search SinoDaily Subscribe To SinoDaily Express Fires Rage In Drought-Hit Portugal Lisbon (AFP) Jul 10, 2005 A camping ground was partially evacuated Sunday night in the north of Portugal while more than 1,000 firefighters backed up by water-dropping aircraft fought 20 fires which were burning out of control across the country. |
|