Aljezur Closes Indoor Pools Indefinitely, Spurring Algarve Maintenance Debate

A morning splash in Aljezur has suddenly become a memory. Municipal authorities have shut the town’s only indoor pools for an indefinite period, citing a cluster of health-and-safety alarms serious enough to outweigh the inconvenience of depriving swimmers, schoolchildren and sports clubs of their main training venue. While the closure may feel like just another local disruption, the story exposes a wider debate about how Algarve councils maintain public facilities in a region that sells itself on active living.

Why the sudden lock on the doors?

Recent seasons have been marred by stop-start reopenings, first after a Legionella scare in February and again when air-quality monitors exceeded legal moisture limits. Engineers found that the complex’s ageing dehumidifier cannibalised parts from earlier repairs, leaving rust and mould to fester in the ductwork. Faulty chlorine-and-pH controllers, crucial for keeping bacteria at bay, had broken beyond repair. By autumn, managers judged that another quick fix would only postpone a more painful reckoning.

Inside the mechanical maze

A preliminary inspection lists a battered boiler, seized circulation pumps, a compromised ultraviolet disinfection unit and a corroded solar-heating array. Add to that an absent gas-exhaust system and leaking expansion joints on the pool floor, and the cumulative picture is of equipment pushed past its design life. Specialists now plan a full technical audit to decide whether parts can be salvaged or if a wholesale rebuild is cheaper in the long run. Until that dossier is finished, officials refuse to name a reopening date or even project costs, though sources familiar with similar repairs elsewhere in the Algarve estimate a figure well into the seven-digit euro bracket.

The ripple effect on everyday life

The shutdown lands hardest on local swim clubs, hydro-fitness groups and the primary school curriculum that relies on the pool for aquatic modules. Coaches have begun negotiating lane space in neighbouring Lagos and Portimão, yet that means longer commutes and higher fuel bills for parents. Teachers, meanwhile, worry that children who miss early immersion classes may never gain the water confidence essential in a coastal district. Tourism operators who market winter break packages around indoor fitness are also recalibrating because the facility doubled as a physiotherapy hub for retirees.

How other Algarve towns keep the water flowing

The contrast with peer municipalities is striking. Portimão’s complex adopts a club-in-residence model, sharing maintenance costs with the elite squad PORTINADO and therefore replacing hardware before faults spiral. Lagos hands day-to-day operations to the semi-public firm Lagos-em-Forma, which runs a rolling preventive-maintenance calendar and publishes inspection logs online. Faro, by comparison, opted for an 18-month total closure this summer after officials judged piecemeal repairs too risky for a structure built in the early 1990s. Together, the cases reveal a spectrum: either bite the bullet once, as Faro and now Aljezur do, or invest continually in incremental upgrades.

What residents can expect next

City Hall promises monthly progress briefs on social media but concedes that the first concrete milestone will be the audit’s delivery, likely early in the new year. Only then will councillors debate whether to retrofit or commission a modern build that meets current energy-efficiency codes and supports therapies such as warm-water rehabilitation. Until answers arrive, families keen on aquatic exercise will need to travel or switch sports. The episode has also sparked calls for the Algarve Inter-Municipal Community to draft shared maintenance protocols so that public pools—vital in a region defined by its coastline—never again fall into simultaneous crisis.