S. João da Madeira

Municipal Council of S. João da Madeira

S. João da Madeira is located in the north of Portugal, a few miles from the cities of Aveiro and Oporto. Since the 70s, citizens from the Portuguese municipality of S. João da Madeira, have complained about bad odour coming from a local animal byproduct management plant situated in Santo Estêvão, located near the municipality of S. João da Madeira. It was in 2003 when the complaints of the families of S. João rose exponentially with medical reports claiming the impact of the bad odour in the deterioration of the health in many municipalities due to dizziness, nausea, amongst other symptoms.

In 2011 Municipal Council of S. João da Madeira decided to implement a mapping tool to document, evaluate and control regular odours with citizen’s collaboration with schools, organizations and the general population. This project was eventually discontinued without achieving its main goal. In 2016 the population of S. João da Madeira, following the lack of solutions for the long-term odour issue, decided to create a social movement of protest called Ar Limpo which submitted the”Cheiro a Casqueira Não!” with more than 5.100 signatures to the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal which decided to issue the resolution n. º 190/2017. This resolution recommends the Government to take the necessary measures to resolve the environmental problems in the area.

The municipality of Sao Joao da Madeira would like to use the D-NOSES methodologies and tools to recover the engagement with their citizens and to co-design solutions to minimize their odour pollution issues.