Following the news item on Portugal’s water quality (September 30, 2015) a reader living between Bordeira and Santa Barbara de Nexe in the Faro council area commented in no uncertain terms on the work of Faro’s in-house company Fagar and its contract to install a mains water supply to the households in the area.
There are two areas of concern within the council’s obligations towards health and safety, and a further concern that corporate fraud may have caused the situation that has been going on for years.
Firstly, the water supply itself which in places still comes via local water towers that have not been cleaned out in living memory.
Whatever the supply route, the new mains water contains suspended solids leading to health concerns and the essential use of expensive domestic filters for a water supply that is supplied by Aguas do Algarve to exacting standards.
Secondly there has been a failure by Faro council, despite concrete assurances from the mayor Rogério Bacalhau at a meeting in his office, that the road surfaces that Fagar left in a temporary state three ago will be resurfaced to mark the conclusion of the civil engineering contract.
One reader sent pictures of her water filter (see below) which after two weeks goes brown and in one month is caked in brown sludge. This is from the new mains supply so clearly something is wrong in the delivery system, adding to customer concerns about health.
The small filters on the end of household taps in the affected area constantly clog up with sand and stones yet the council charges customers full price as if the water was as clear and unpolluted at ’98.4% of the country’s supply.’
Locals in the area concerned point out that the new mains supply is not direct as Fagar continues to fill water towers which have not been cleaned. This may be where the problem of suspended solids is occurring.
Fagar and Faro council have failed to respond to complaints. In desperation, a demonstration was held by those affected in April 2013 to highlight their continuing problems and in a news report broadcast on RPT-1 mayor Bacalhau assured viewers that “Everything would be finished by December 2013.”
The roadworks started a full five years ago in 2011 as trenches were dug and mains pipes installed to households but the work remains uncompleted.
While they were working, the subcontractors men dug trenches to wherever there was a house, every few yards, along every road in the area all at the same time.
These trenches were backfilled with mud and rocks which quickly sank into the channels cut across the road surfaces.
This dangerous road surface remains with sunken trenches, surface gravel and potholes that already have led to at least two motorcyclist deaths and others seriously injured in avoidable accidents.
The damage to vehicles from these now dangerous public roads has been frequent and expensive with punctures, broken wheel rims, shattered shock absorbers and broken suspensions common events.
There are no warning signs on the road so unwary motorists are in trouble before they realise the state of the road. It seems that as far as Fagar is concerned, these roads are in an acceptable state for the public to use.
If the council indeed has signed off this work as completed, then the workmanship is deeply concerning. If the council is waiting for money to complete the work, why did the project begin when there was no money to finish it?
Residents say that the subcontractor went bust, in which case sufficient money would have been left in the part-used budget for another contractor to finish the work unless the first contractor had been paid in full for a contract that was not completed.
If the sub-contractor has been paid in full and then conveniently went bust, who was in charge of this contract at Fagar and were there any other contracts that followed the same pattern of suspicious insolvency and over generous advanced payments?
Whatever the reason, after five years Faro council has had sufficient time to budget for the resurfacing and the one attempt at cosmetic repairs, a thin layer of tar painted in a couple of places on top of loose mud and stones, can hardly be said to be addressing the problem.
Instead the city hall successfully has avoided the issue leaving residents with full price impure water, a road surface that is a constant danger to users while homeowners continue to suffer from a policy of zero communication from council-owned Fagar and of standard, unhelpful responses from Faro council to which residents continue to pay their household rates each year.
In neighbouring São Brás and Loule similar mains water supply work has been completed with new road surfaces laid as part of the contract. Why has Faro failed?
Mayor Bacalhau continues to ignore his ratepayers, Fagar is not interested in the failed contract and suspicions are growing that the council may have been defrauded by Fagar and the sub-contractor.
Whatever the case, promises made by mayor Bacalhau again account for nothing, he is a politician after all, and the residents living between Bordeira and Santa Barbara de Nexe continue to receive supplies of expensive sludge and negotiate road surfaces that are more ‘pothole and trench’ than road.
New water filter, and after one month...
