Weeds growing on Lisbon’s sidewalks, requiring increased weeding efforts

On less busy Lisbon sidewalks, weeds grow between the stones of the Portuguese pavement, mainly due to weather conditions. The responsibility for deforestation lies with parish councils, which say they have no choice but to register complaints from customers.

“It’s very annoying when visitors or anyone else passes by and it looks like there was a garden on the sidewalk right next to our doorstep,” complains Madalena Guedes, 83, a resident of San Vicente parish, talking to Lusa for a couple of minutes after workers cut weeds from the sidewalk outside her home.

Madalena Guedes lives on Rua Josefa de Óbidos, in the Graça district, next to the headquarters of the São Vicente Parish Council, where much of the sidewalk was filled with tall grass, rubbish piled up next to the trash bins and even odds and ends such as a broken washing machine.

“It’s a shame for us Portuguese to come to such a dirty street and bring tourists to represent it,” he laments, pointing to a dozen visitors admiring an urban art wall with colourful “graffiti”.

The street’s condition is also the result of work on a condominium development behind it, which took “about three years” and produced “a lot of debris.”

“It was a mess, a mess,” the client criticizes, adding that the project was completed in April and a general cleaning was expected, but the intervention was slow.

“Just now [dia 19 de agosto]after all this time they came to cut [as ervas daninhas]“We had trees here that looked almost like a garden, and the street was the same, all oil stains, all dirty,” he says, noting that he has already filed a complaint with the Lisbon City Council and the São Vicente Parish Council.

Surprised to see a team of three workers from the San Vicente Parish Council clearing the street, Madalena Guedes came out of her house with a broom to help clear away the grass cut by the hedge trimmer.

The president of the San Vicente Parish Council, Natalina Moura (PS), in office since 2013 and serving her third and final term until 2025, suggests that deforestation has become a “serious problem for urban governance”, in which one of the constraints is the lack of a means of slowing down the growth of weeds other than mechanical cutting.

“We cut them off and after two weeks they start to appear,” he says.

The weather conditions recorded this year have also led to grass growth, and deforestation has become difficult in terms of human resources during the period of public festivities and working holidays, when “everything is blocked in terms of this work,” he said.

“You should come to Lusa to organize tours,” complained a shopper passing on the street while the mayor was answering questions. There were also those who loudly suggested turning a goat out to graze the weeds, given the amount of weeds that existed.

Asked about the presence of complaints, Natalina Moura admitted that “they always exist.”

“But there are complaints about everything, because everything is dumped here, in the council. The other day, someone asked us if we also have a maternity care center. There is nothing that does not end up in the councils, because of the proximity,” it is emphasized.

The deforestation in São Vicente has resulted in priority being given to areas prone to fires, namely Avenida Mouzinho de Albuquerque and the slope of Vale de Santo António, says the mayor, acknowledging that the current situation in the parish’s public spaces with the growth of grass and weeds “is already a public health problem”, with the existence of pests including rats and cockroaches.

“If they came from the village, like me, they would even clean and tidy up [as ervas]but people don’t do that, and then it combines with other aspects that are also less friendly, such as urban hygiene, which causes us big problems,” he emphasizes, believing that there is also a lack of civility here.

While monitoring the deforestation, João Adrião, environmental manager for the parish council of São Vicente, recalls that executions used to be carried out by “one person, a sprayer and a herbicide,” but glyphosate, because it is potentially carcinogenic, was banned in space and in public places. The use of an alcoholic solution of vinegar and salt was also banned.

At the moment, the work is carried out by means of mechanical cutting, which “requires a person to cut, a person to preserve the stones and grass, and a third to clean,” he specifies, emphasizing that “it is a huge effort, besides the result was also not the most effective, because the herbicide kept the sidewalk clean for four to five months, and after that the service [com motorroçadora]in a month – that is, if there is even less rain – all the grass will return to its previous form.”

“This is a problem of urban space from Minho to the Algarve,” he says.

To overcome these restrictions, the San Vicente Parish Council hired a deforestation company, which began work in mid-August.

“We hope that within a month all the streets in the parish will be clear of weeds,” he says, noting that when it starts to rain, the problem will return.

A cross-cutting problem like litter, weeds also affect the parish of Alvalade, where the council, chaired by José Amaral López (PSD), has sought to ensure deforestation on 179 streets in the territory, of which 45 are locally active.

In the São Miguel area, Alvalade Parish Councillor for Urban Hygiene, Cristiana Vieira (PSD), says that, in addition to deforestation, the council is responsible for sweeping, cleaning gutters and cleaning around eco-islands and waste recycling points, a responsibility that falls under the Lisbon administrative reform approved in 2012.

Christiana Vieira confirms that this was an atypical year due to “very unfavourable weather conditions for weed growth, which requires much more attention to this skill, to deforestation.”

Currently, the Alvalade Parish Council has “five teams a day”, with two members each, with battery-powered hedge trimmers, and there is also an external team that provides support with mechanical weeding.

“Sometimes we also use herbal preparations that slow down the growth of weeds. We use products that do not contain glyphosate, meaning they are not harmful to humans or animals,” he emphasizes, stressing that these are “ecologically clean” products.

As for complaints about deforestation, the deputy says that “fortunately, there are not many complaints, but they do exist.”