The Directorate-General for Natural Resources, Safety and Maritime Services (DGRM) participated in the closing days of the "GUAD20 Project - Guadiana, Navigable Natural Heritage", of the INTERREG V-A 2014-2020 Spain-Portugal Programme, which were held today at the Port of Huelva.

The project contemplated the establishment of the navigability of the Guadiana River in the Alcoutim-Pomarão section, being part of the set of interventions the establishment of a navigable channel 30 meters wide, the placement of maritime signaling, the construction of several access and mooring docks for boats, and the production of Nautical charts of the entire international section of the Guadiana River between Vila Real de Santo António and Pomarão.

The event had an initial panel of speakers, consisting of the President of the Port of Huelva, Pilar Miranda, the Director General of the Public Ports Agency of Andalusia, Rafael Merino López, the Director General of DGRM, José Carlos Simão, and the Director General of the Hydrographic Institute, Carlos Ventura Soares.

- a set of technical presentations of the work carried out within the GUAD20 project, in which the project of navigability and marking presented by DGRM and the new Nautical Charts presented by the Hydrographic Institute were highlighted.
- The future works to be developed in the next INTERREG programme were also discussed, which will include the implementation of navigability in the last stretch between Pomarão and Mértola, the creation of more mooring and access infrastructures for people to the river, and also the need for a new intervention at the level of the Guadiana bar. Efforts should also be made to promote this natural and cultural asset, which should be boosted with safety and control requirements, also preserving the environmental values present throughout the Guadiana valley.

As a general motto of the Conference, the message was that the Guadiana River, the target of the interventions already carried out and the future ones, will be increasingly a reason for union between Portugal and Spain and an engine for economic development and job creation in the surrounding municipalities, namely through recreational boating and tourism activities.