In a letter penned by Lisbon Mayor Fernando Medina sent to the Municipal Assembly, the authority said it had received 20,896 requests for intervention in situations such as ongoing roadworks throughout the city, walkways and accessibility, in April and May.
However, the majority of those requests related to rubbish and animal waste, making up a total of 11,879 requests, or 56.8 percent.
Roads and signage and pedestrian walkways make up 12.7 percent and 7.3 percent respectively.
When queried by newspaper Correio da Manhã about the rubbish situation, the Council’s deputy mayor, who is also responsible for Urban Hygiene, said there is a “certain consistency” about that type of occurrence.
“Urban hygiene is always, on average, around half of these occurrences”, Duarte Cordeiro explained.
He said around €5 million have been spent on some 200 ‘ecological islands’ (underground waste containers) – 120 during a first phase and the rest will be installed at the start of next year. Seven have already been installed.
He said bigger paper recycling bins will also be installed to respond to tourist and commercial demand.
The councillor stressed that dumping rubbish and leaving animal waste on streets is
prohibited.
Last year Lisbon Council issued 1,994 fines in the area of urban hygiene, to a total value of €73,377.
Also in 2015, 16 warnings were handed out to people for not removing animal waste from the street, and 1,180 for dumping rubbish.