The Minister for the Environment, João Matos Fernandes, was in the Algarve today to re-announce various projects, expecting everyone to have forgotten his previous announcements to show how much the government is doing for the region.
In a classic pre-election visit to the region, Fernandes said that tenders will be invited “by the end of the year” for old projects such as the fabled bridge to Faro Island, dredging sea channels at Armona, Fuzeta and Alvor and a new plan for Ancão beach.
These projects were mentioned as if new while the minister signed a protocol for the construction of a new ferry quay in Tavira island, which at least is a new project.
Adding everything up, the minister said the total investment for the region is €22 million, including the removal of the mature 1960s gardens in Olhão, for which a tender document already has been issued and work will start "in a very short space of time" despite fundamental local opposition to the plan as it includes turning the main road along Olhão’s river front into a one-way system.
When Olhão’s annual seafood festival disrupts traffic for ten days each August, vehicles are backed up to, and onto the EN125 as the riverfront road is reduced to one lane.
When this one-way system becomes the norm, many tourists and those seeking lunch in the city’s busy restaurants simply may give up and go elsewhere, but this is of no concern to Fernandes who sees all spending, however poorly thought-out, as a way of increasing his popularity and that of the struggling Olhão mayor.
João Matos Fernandes said that by the end of the year "the Ministry of the Environment will have under tender and in progress, investments that exceed €22 million including very important interventions to reinforce the dunes, such as the dredging of the Ria de Alvor and the dredging of the Fuzeta and Armona channels, and all that is dredged will be restored to the dunes, to consolidate them before the sea advances.”
On the plus side, the minister for the first time hinted that Polis Litoral Ria Formosa is being wound up.
This poorly managed, cash-rich, association was behind the botched attempts to rid the islands of Farol and Culatra of buildings while making little or no provision for displaced residents.
Islanders revolted in a long-running campaign to save their homes and jobs, forcing a government retreat and the sacking of the reviled Sebastião Teixeira from the presidency of Polis. Other work commissioned by Polis often has been of lamentably poor quality, or incomplete and, in the case of the un-commissioned traffic management system for Faro island, seemingly designed to increase the chaos it set out to resolve. (here)
Polis is still in charge of various projects including the new ferry terminal on Tavira island, the bridge to Faro island, the new beach plan for Ancão and the removal and rebuilding of two parks in Olhão.
Many suggest that these projects will deliberately be delayed to enable Polis staff and management to continue to draw salaries for as long as possible, a tactic that already has seen two year extensions to the life of the time-limited association.
Matos Fernandes considers that these investments value "the attraction that Ria Formosa already has for the most traditional human activities (the ones he sought to remove with the island clearances) and for tourism, with highly qualified spaces and respectful of the sensitivity, fragility and richness of these ecosystems," - all wonderful stuff, but fooling no one with just six weeks to go before the October 1st local elections.
Moving to the topic of the island of Culatra, keen to re-announce more work, Fernandes said the tenders for the €1.5 million upgrade for the public areas will be issued “in the first fortnight of September,” on a project that "will greatly improve the public space, without disturbing the characteristics of the settlement.”"
"What is important on the islands are traditional activities. Hence our great effort in Culatra, which began with the Intervention and Re-qualification Plan (PIR), which was approved and approved by me and continues with this work," according to the minister who added, ominously, that those living on Culatra are safe from demolition, but only during the lifetime of the owner unless the heir too is involved in traditional fishing or shell-fishing activities.
There now is “the possibility of passing property to descendants, if these are fishing professionals,” which Fernandes referred to as “enjoying special environmental protection.”
