The Tanque de Contumil is a body of water with a strong historical and cultural component, a true oasis lost in time. The place where they once washed clothes and soaked cod, now gives way to nature. Once these customs have disappeared, plants and animals have reclaimed the habitat and it has become a fundamental place for the city’s aquatic biodiversity.
The Municipality of Porto, with the support of CIIMAR, removed the invasive plants, installed ramps for the amphibians and reinforced the biodiversity of fauna and flora. This is now a space of diverse botany, enriched with orange-bellied newts (Triturus boscai), Iberian midwife toad larvae (Alytes obstetricans), salamanders (Salamandra salamandra) and green frogs (Pelophylax perezi) and many dragonfly and damselfly larvae, among other invertebrates. As proof of a healthy coexistence between humans and nature, this pond continues to be useful for some small farmers, who water their gardens with its waters while benefiting from the ecosystem services provided by its inhabitants.
The pond was rehabilitated by the Municipality, in partnership with CIIMAR (Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research). The main objectives of this collaboration are to increase knowledge of the city’s wetlands, mapping, biological inventory and characterisation, with a view to adopting conservation and restoration measures and creating new water bodies.
