Sintra will have a Water and Waste Museum

In 2022, Sintra will have a new museum space, the Water and Waste Museum (MAR), in the Oficina da Ciência facilities, in Ribeira de Sintra, and will be a reference point in the areas of education and environmental awareness, as well as scientific dissemination and technology within the urban water and waste cycle.

The presentation of the new museum took place at the Conference “SMAS de Sintra-75 years at the service of Sintra/On the Path of Science” which took place this Wednesday, with the presence of the president of the Municipality of Sintra, Basílio Horta, the director of SMAS from Sintra, Carlos Vieira and scientist Elvira Fortunato, who marked the World Science Day for Peace and Development.

MAR will have a diversified program to attract new audiences but centered on the educational community. In addition to its integration into the Portuguese Museum Network, MAR will be provided with an educational service to encourage interconnection with educational establishments and constitute an excellent means of publicizing the work carried out by the SMAS.

“In 2022, the Ribeira de Sintra installations will assume a renewed role, in terms of education and environmental awareness, with the entry into operation of the Water and Waste Museum. This equipment will keep those facilities as an important center of scientific and technological dissemination, but our bet is that it develops an increasingly pedagogical, didactic, and intervening action, in relation to the urban cycle of water and waste, aimed at the general public and, in particular, to the educational community”, stresses the mayor of Sintra, Basílio Horta, who also chairs the Board of Directors of the SMAS.

To reinforce the dynamics of its functioning, the Municipality of Sintra decided to assign the management of the Science Workshop to the SMAS, given its public service mission in the environmental area, in the areas of water supply, drainage and treatment of wastewater and collection and transport of urban waste, without neglecting education and environmental awareness.

Thus, the SMAS will carry out education and awareness actions in the community to adopt values ​​and habits related to preserving the environmental heritage, especially regarding the water cycle, promoting and organizing courses, internships, seminars, meetings, exhibitions, and formations.

Even before the creation of MAR, the SMAS space in Ribeira de Sintra will develop a set of initiatives within the scope of its activities. During the weekends in November, they promote the “Float” activity, in which various concepts associated with the density and fluctuation of bodies in fresh and saltwater will be explored, through the realization of a set of scientific experiments.

The space’s first major initiative is scheduled for the 27th of November: the inauguration of the exhibitions “Sea Monsters” and “Sea of ​​Plastic”, in partnership with CIIMAR-Interdisciplinary Center for Marine and Environmental Research of the University of Porto, which they will be open until March 27, 2022. The two exhibitions are intended to raise awareness of the problem of marine litter and the need for the population to adopt environmentally sustainable behavior.

The space is open from Tuesday to Sunday, from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm and from 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm, closed on Mondays and holidays.