Factory by the lagoon (The) (long version)

In the Aveiro district of Northern Portugal, Estarreja is a town with a lagoon area where its rich ecosystem has been suffering from intense pollution since the 1950s. It is also the place of the second most important chemical compound in the country. Cross disciplinary research has been conducted by the International Human and Environment Observatory (OHMI) since 2010 to assess the impact of chemical pollutants in this densely populated area where there is still much traditional agriculture.
As the director of OHMI–Estarreja, Anne-Marie Guihard-Costa and many of those involved in ecological awareness raising around the lagoon have looked back on its different rehabilitation phases, from the enhancement of industrial practices in the 1990s to the inception of various programmes to contain toxic wastes. However, soils and the Ria have been contaminated over the long term, and the reduction of pollutant release is still insufficient.