Since 2025, inhabitants of part of the municipality of Castro Verde have been suffering from bad smell and "clouds" of flies coming from agricultural land where sludge is deposited as fertilizer. An anonymous resident of the town reports that there are days when she cannot open the windows and considers the situation increasingly "unbearable".
The Castro Verde City Council submitted a complaint to the Coordination and Regional Development Commission of the Alentejo (CCDRA) stating that the deposition of sludge has caused "negative and unacceptable impacts" in the municipality, including foul-smelling odor and swarms of flies affecting homes and tourist accommodation establishments over a vast area of the territory. The municipality also states that the heavy vehicles transporting the sludge use Municipal Road 535, causing rapid degradation of municipal roads.
The mayor of the municipality, António José Brito, states that the municipality cannot continue to "condone" this situation. According to the mayor, CCDRA informed that a joint inspection has already been carried out with the Nature and Environment Protection Service (SEPNA) of the GNR from Almodôvar.
The case had already been reported in August 2025 by the Union of Parishes of Castro Verde and Casével, and inspections were carried out at the Rosilha and Cerro estates in the neighboring municipality of Aljustrel. CCDRA detected the use of Biociclo Algarve and Biociclo Beja products as fertilizers, and a report was filed with ASAE as the compliance with registration and market placement requirements for these fertilizer materials may be at issue.
