The Environment Minister, Jorge Moreia da Silva, has hit back at recent criticism of the remodelling work at Dona Ana beach near Lagos, saying that his €1.8 million spend is justified on the grounds of safety.
Reacting to the announcement of complaints to the European Commission and to the public prosecutor by environmental organisation Almargem, Jorge Moreira da Silva today asked, "What should the government and the local authority do? By keeping the landscape (cliffs) intact, should we endanger citizens?"
"Or, as eventually has happened, we put more sand on the beach, returning it by the way to the size this beach was in the ‘50s and ‘60s, and provide a balance between landscape, environmental protection and the security of the people? Our choice was obvious," wrote the minister on his Facebook page.
The work to scrape the cliffs of loose rock and to add sand to enlarge the beach was authorised in 1999. The Ministry of the Environment got around to starting the work in 2015. Therefore, safety was hardly first and foremost on the Ministerial agenda during the intervening 16 years.
The work focused on pulling down dangerous looking rocks along the cliff and vaccuming sand from the seabed and depositing 140,000 cubic metres of it to make a new beach for people to sit on.
"What would these environmentalists say and how many complaints would we get if there was no government intervention at that beach? What if a fatality occurred by the cliffs collapsing onto swimmers sitting, due the lack of space, under the most dangerous areas?" Asks the minister, asking questions to which Almargem does not require answers.
The complaint from the respected eco-organisation was that the ministry had failed to commission an environmental impact assessment, that is should not have disturbed the marine ecosystem by vacuuming it up and dumping it to make a beach and that a 50 metre bank is being built which also warrants an impact assessment.
These are the ‘serious environmental and premeditated crimes’ that Almargem has complained about; the organisation does not have any complaint about making the environment safer for beach users but feels it should be involved in finding environmentally friendly solutions rather than having to witness the destructive remodelling of a beach once internationally famous for its beauty.
Moreia da Silva, probably still the Algarve's most detested politician, has a habit of getting huffy and arrogant when thwarted and threatened.
The Minister's messianic behaviour over the Ria Formosa islanders dispute showed him unfiit for level-headed public office and his answers today to Almargen, using his Facebook page, are a feeble attempt to gain public sympathy for a project where it seems he simply failed to follow the environmental rules that the rest of the country has to follow.
The old political standby of answering questions that have not been asked, has failed on this occassion.
