The creation of this team was made official on Wednesday 16th October with the signing of a technical collaboration protocol between Vila Nova de Famalicão Town Hall and the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA).

Initially, the Brigade's priority will be the River Pelhe, but it will also work on the River Este, the River Pele and, eventually, the River Ave.

According to the mayor of Vila Nova de Famalicão, Mário Passos, this team will clean, monitor and inspect the beds and banks of Famalicão's rivers and, together with the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) and the Nature and Environmental Protection Service (SEPNA), penalise any infringements as quickly as possible.

Mário Passos explains that it will be possible to "qualify the municipality's watershed and empower Famalicão's territory" and that with the renaturalisation of the watercourses, the rivers and streams will become an attractive factor for those visiting Famalicão. According to the mayor, the monitoring carried out by these operatives will make it possible to give the population watercourses that deserve to be properly contemplated and enjoyed.

The president of the APA, José Pimenta Machado, emphasised the importance of the presence of these figures in the municipalities, especially in terms of punishing the main polluters who, after being informed and warned, continue to damage the waterways.

For him, the cooperation now formalised between the APA and the Famalicense municipality reinforces the efforts made so far to guarantee the well-being of the ecosystems and biodiversity of the municipality's river basin and the creation of ‘conditions for the population to enjoy [these spaces]’.

It should be remembered that the municipality of Vila Nova de Famalicão has 220 kilometres of watercourses, 80 of which are major.