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Municipality invests 400 M€ in asbestos removal in schools

Although it is "absolutely clear" that the government will pay the full cost of renovating the schools, "all the interventions that are necessary to guarantee the safety of children at school will be carried out". This "is a commitment of honor from the City Council", assured the Councillor for Education, Rodrigo Mello Gonçalves, during a meeting of the Lisbon Municipal Assembly (AML).

Vasco da Gama School - archive photo

In the topical debate "The State of Schools in the Municipality of Lisbon", held on February 10 at the AML, Vasco Moreira Rato, councillor for Municipal Works, took stock of the works carried out in recent years by the municipality and gave an assurance: "you won't hear me say that everything is fine, but urgent needs have been taken care of with priority and urgent works".

In Lisbon, he said, there are "28 schools considered to be priorities with tenders launched for funding", for which "the state assumed that it would carry out 100 percent of the expenditure". The challenge "is immense", he stressed, pointing to "an estimated investment of more than 600 million euros".

In addition to the "priority" schools, the Lisbon municipality's school park includes 141 schools. Despite the "challenge", the person responsible for the works assured: "We're not going to miss the opportunity to do it right. We're not going to rush into it, we're not going to miss an opportunity that mortgages the next 30 or 40 years". This "takes time", he warned, and involves "making sure that the schools are energy efficient, that they have the seismic resistance they need".

Recently, two agreements were made with the government "which are working well", he said, "one for the Delfim Santos school worth €320,000, and another for the Vasco da Gama basic school worth around €590,000".

In 2022, Vasco Moreira Rato also recalled, CML went ahead with the removal of asbestos from the roofs of three schools, an investment of over 400 million euros, and between 2021 and 2025 100 million euros were invested in the entire school park, "#including the amounts that are transferred annually from the government for school maintenance".