Dear Editor,
The photo shows where the Alcantarilha river enters the sea at Armação de Pêra beach.
When I took this photo at about 5.15pm on August 14, the sand dam was in place. And you can see the dam with people standing on it.
However, at similar times on Saturday and Sunday, the dam was not in place. At high tide, which was late afternoon/early evening, the water was 1 metre deep. And wading through it with our beach things back to the car park was really quite scary and dangerous. It was like a whirlpool with the tide flowing in and the river flowing out.
My partner stumbled when wading across up to his waist and would have been swept away had I not been there. Similarly, several days last week the dam was not in place.
If the relevant authorities do not ensure the dam is in place each day when high tide falls at the end of the day, when people need to return to their hotels or cars, then I fear that a serious accident is just waiting to happen. If it is deemed necessary on some days, why not all days? There seems no pattern or logic.
If you can bring this to everyone’s attention you would be doing both locals and tourists a great service.
We come on holiday each year here for two weeks. In the 10 consecutive years we have been coming, we have never previously had this problem.
John Jenkins
By email
