The Pego do Inferno waterfall is located on the Asseca riverbank, in Santo Estêvão, around 10 kilometres from Tavira, and the effects of the drought affecting the Algarve, together with the consequent loss of water quality in the lake at the base of the waterfall, have caused a decline in the attractiveness of the location in recent years, which was already difficult to reach since a fire destroyed the wooden structures that guaranteed safe access in 2012.

When asked by Lusa news agency about the current situation of this natural space, which has been closed to the public since 2012, the mayor of Tavira, Ana Paula Martins, explained that, at the end of 2019, the municipality drew up a project to restore access to the space, but the drought, first, and then the need to allocate resources to the PRR, prevented its development.

Ana Paula Martins recalled that the municipality also requested opinions on the project, which envisaged the creation of walkways in another location, next to the river, constituting “a promenade, a pedestrian path”, but the land in question is private and it is “necessary to move forward with negotiations” with the owners.

The mayor of Tavira said that last year, “the waterfall had almost no water” and the municipality ended up stopping this project because it was necessary to “take on other processes, due to the PRR issue”, she justified.

“We have a certain shortage of architects and engineers, that’s a fact, and in the meantime, we had to take on the PRR projects that we are doing”, she stated.

These include the construction of a new outpatient unit and the requalification of spaces in the health area, as well as social housing projects planned by the PRR, which “stopped the process at the end of 2021, beginning of 2022”.

Ana Paula Martins assured that the municipality intends to “resume” the initiative to create conditions for safe access to Pego do Inferno, but stressed that “this involves negotiations with the owners” and “clearing all the conditions of the APA”, a response that the mayor believes is “possible”.

The lack of water and the difficulties of access also caused the Council to stop promoting Pego do Inferno, reducing demand in the area, the mayor acknowledged.

Currently, access to Pego do Inferno has to be done through a dense sugarcane field, which “has grown in recent years” and through private properties, where “there are people who get irritated when people walk on their land”.

The mayor hopes that in the future, but not during this term, she will reach an agreement with the owners to transfer the land that will allow the project to be developed.