Infraestucturas de Portugal says it did not authorise the destruction of Fonte de Boliqueime’s iconic well which has been removed to make way for yet another new roundabout on the Algarve’s EN125.
The company has received a stiff letter from Loulé’s mayor, Vitor Aleixo, in which he accuses the company of an "affront to public memory."
Portugal’s national infrastructure body said it will examine with the utmost urgency the circumstances leading up to the removal of the well while offering the limp excuse that the destruction was carried out by its subcontractor, Rotas Litoral do Algarve.
Aleixo said that Infraestucturas de Portugal has ignored the need to preserve the well which is symbolic for the local population.
The mayor is cross that the 'fait accompli' has been achieved without any reference to the local council which was not consulted in time.
The well at Fonte de Boliqueime has been there for decades, said the mayor, and was a source of interest as the village was name after the feature and also was the birthplace of the former President of the Republic of Portugal, Cavaco Silva.
Aleixo went on to have a moan at other roadworks along the EN125 which, in his opinion, take no account of the need for local pedestrians to cross the road and in which the local council has had no say at all.
He also criticised the roadworks for not being coordinated with planned sanitation works which means that many sections of road will have to be dug up again just after they have been finished.
"The Municipal Council of Loulé is to inform the government of the destruction of the local well," concludes Vítor Aleixo.
The original well was pretty much ruined in the 1970s when it was capped with concrete, thus destroying its original use and design.
The mayor is well aware that there was a public meeting to discuss the well's future and should know that it could have been saved if the roundabout was built as originally proposed. It proved impossible to reach an agreement with those that owned the land and the roundabout design had to be altered, the well had to go.
The plan is that the old well will be covered up, but a 1m wide access chamber left to allow access.
The good news it that a new well is to be built on the new roundabout, it can not be built where the old one was as it would located in the road.
Those at the public meeting, including Richard Mills from the nearby Azul Properties office, requested that the Junta de Freguesia at least made sure that the new construction is built in the correct style to look like an old well, or ‘poço.’
The contractors promised to involve locals with regard to the final design but it remains to be seen what, if anything, will be built to satisfy the conflicting interests of an upgraded EN125 and the need to preserve, or in this case, rebuild, local patrimony.
As for the mayor's public explosion, his time could better be spent sorting out the invidious position in which the council controlled water company Infralobo has placed many local householders in Vale do Garrão, Quinta Jacintina and Vilas Alvas in and around Vale de Lobo who are being charged an almost certainly illegal 'bedroom tax' on top of their already high water bills.
Many of these law abiding home owners now have been cut off for refusing to pay the extra change and are living as best they can without a water supply.
Infralobo has refused to comment and the national water regulator ERSAR has stated that it can not approve of the bedroom tax on top of water charges.
The resounding silence from mayor Aleixo and Infralobo's President Eng.º José Eduardo Rodrigues Miguel, and directors Eng.º Luís Matos and Dr. João Justo in response to a tsunami of customer complaints shows deep rooted arrogance towards home owners, many of them foreigners.
The mayor's populist and well publicised letter about the well at Fonte de Boliqueime is designed to attract approval from local voters for a dynamic mayor who responds to issues and ‘sorts things out.’
Aleixo's reaction to the old well makes the water situation at nearby Vale de Lobo, that he is doing his very best to ingnore, all the more shameful.
