An Albufeira councillor has given an indication of the rising losses suffered by the council and hundreds of business owners as the clean-up progresses well.
One third of traders in the city have been affected by the flooding on November 1st and quantifiable losses to stock and damage to premises already has exceeded a million euros, with the figure rising as assessments are made of each damaged business, according to councillor, Ana Vidigal.
"We have exceeded a million euros. These are very high losses," said the councilor with special responsibility for Civil Protection in Albufeira.
This Sunday, the downtown shopping area continued to be cleared and cleaned by shopkeepers, scouts, volunteers, civil protection workers and council employees.
The greater part of the sand and sludge now has been removed and shops are being cleaned out to see of any stock is recoverable but underground garages are still filled with water and debris, many of which contain submerged vehicles.
Albufeira’s mayor, Carlos Silva e Sousa, said that alongside the clean-up operation, work is going on to establish what measures can be taken to reduce or avoid the same impact in similar situations.
The answer to the second point already should be clear and the hydrological report from 2008 should again be read, but this time its recommendations followed.
The Algarve’s four Socialist Party MPs met leaders of the Algarve’s restaurant and hotel association and have pledged to trigger ‘various initiatives’ to help businesses recover. The politicians waffle on about the ‘defence of employment and financial consolidation of these companies, small businesses and micro enterprises,’ but being politicians, had little to say of practical use.
The MPs pledged to trigger ‘credit lines in support of financial consolidation and liquidity support for companies as well as opening support under the Commerce Invest programme targeted at enterprises in the centre of Albufeira,’ though did not make it clear how they would achieve this, nor whether Albufeira’s traders wanted to take on loans.
Even less helpfully, the MPs said it was ‘indispensable’ to have a concerted plan of festive events for downtown Albufeira to boost the low season between Christmas and New Year. A concerted plan to reopen damaged businesses might have been a better short-term goal.
Finally, the MPs said it was necessary for the council to define the criteria for traders wanting to access the three support funds announced by the government last Friday.
Being MPs, the four expressed their ‘full solidarity’ with the population of Albufeira, Lagoa, Loulé and Silves where many also had suffered flood damage.
Albufeira’s traders really can do without more support for politicians while they roll up their sleeves and get on with some self-help with shovels and hoses.
A week has gone by with politicians again proving themselves divorced from the real problem which is mud and water, filth and debris, broken shop fronts and flooded basements.
When politicians talk of funds, credit lines, solidarity, liquidity support and financial consolidation this is designed to make it look like a. they know what they are talking about and b. that they somehow are solving problems. Often, neither is true.
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Comments
Being emergency disaster area relief some of these amounts could be part claimed from the EU - but the rest would come from the Portuguese Government. Which has borrowed enough!