The intervention carried out in recent days at Levada do Caldeirão Verde, to rehabilitate the canal after the landslides last December, cost the Region’s coffers almost 19 thousand euros.
According to the contract signed between the public company Águas e Resíduos da Madeira (ARM) and Agrodragoeiro, Unipessoal, Lda., dated February 21, this amount allowed for the “cleaning and replacement of the canal and pedestrian crossing” of said canal.
Although the document now released stipulates 20 days as the deadline for completing the project, in an agreement reached through prior consultation, the work will already be completed.
At the beginning of December last year, a large landslide caused great damage to this water channel, which is essential for supplying a large part of the municipality of Santana, not only in terms of irrigation, but also in the supply of drinking water, especially to the parishes of Faial and Santana, through the Pico do Eixo Water Treatment Plant.
The intervention was not carried out immediately on the ground, given the need to stabilise the escarpment and the complexity of the work that had to be carried out. The works took place over a little over three weeks, involving the cleaning of the material resulting from the collapse, the replacement of a supporting wall on the levada itself, as well as the installation of protective railings.
This levada also serves as a classified hiking trail (PR 9), one of the most popular among tourists and locals. This route was closed for some time, but was partially reopened after the work on the ground, but only as far as the descent to the parish of Ilha/Pico Ruivo. Last week, with the end of the work, the trail reopened in full.