Pestana Group has serious questions about the Environmental Impact Study for the enlargement of the Port of Setúbal, claiming the study is more to do with commercial interest than with the environment.
The expansion and deepening of the maritime access channel to the Port of Setúbal, which will have environmental consequences for the Sado Estuary and the Tróia Peninsula, "is a matter of deep concern to the Pestana Hotel Group," which runs the Pestana Tróia Eco-Resort on the Tróia Peninsula.
The hotel group has issued a statement, noting that, "everything indicates that the Environmental Impact Study that underpins this project, values more the economic aspects and industrial interests, relegating to second place consequences such as the deposit of sediment in front of bathing areas of various tourism complexes, the denuding of the beaches, the effect on dolphin colonies and the destruction of fishing reserves."
The powerful tourism group said that, "there is still the possibility of contamination of sites by contaminated dredging, which certainly will have strong environmental and economic consequences for tourism, not only in Setúbal, but also in Tróia and Arrábida."
"We don’t understand how a project with this environmental impact is going ahead, considering that, to date, all tourism projects developed in the region have been subjected to strict environmental restrictions, depending on their insertion or proximity to the Ecological Reserve or the Natura 2000 network.
“Major constraints were imposed and accepted on the impact in this sensitive region," said José Roquette, Chief Development Officer of the Pestana Hotel Group, who concluded that "it is incomprehensible and extremely irresponsible that the whole ecosystem of the Sado estuary and Tróia peninsula to be put at risk."
