The Portuguese Communist Party arranged and attended a number of meetings and site visits at the end of last week in Fuseta and Olhão and on the the Algarve’s Ria Formosa islands.
Party organisers were accompanied by MEP João Pimenta Lopes and Algarve MP, Paulo Sá to collect new information on the problems experienced by people living and working in the Ria Formosa area.
This will allow the politicians to "strengthen institutional intervention in issues that the Communist Party had been working on for a long time," allegedly.
Indeed there were no surprises and the same problems exist now as have done for many years, in fact they have got worse, especially for those locals still involved in lagoon and sea-related economic activities.
The silted up channel at Fuseta is still silted up, causing accidents and hampering navigation. Fuseat's harbour is in poorer condition than at the last visit, meaning skippers now are avoiding it to offload fish, preferring other safer harbours.
There was a meeting with Olhão’s shellfishermen and with colleagues at VIVMAR in Faro when the same old problem was discussed, mainly to do with toxins caused by council condoned pollution in the Ria Formosa, and the pending auctioning off of hereditary shellfish breeding grounds to the highest bidder.
Then there was a visit to Olhão’s markets, always a pleasure, followed by a trip to the islands where the Farol island association gathered to go over familiar territory.
The visit ended with Paulo Sá giving a speech on the beach at Faro island where campsite residents reiterated their concerns over their pending eviction.
The only new aspect of this fact-finding mission was the work going on at and near the bridge to Faro island and the delays that are widely expected to last well into the tourism season.
It was good of the Communist Party to turn up but it’s business as usual in the Ria Formosa with pollution crippling the local shellfish industry, essential dredging not commissioned and the demolition of further island properties “on hold until September” according to the prime minister.
Until the government takes the Ria Formosa natural park area seriously, eradicates raw sewage and agricultural run-off into the lagoon, scraps the planned island property demolitions, scraps the auctioning off of shellfish beds, orders a long-overdue dredging operation and gets the Polis Ria Formosa company to fix obvious structures such as Fuseta docks, the politicians will come and go with their earnest expressions, nodding and agreeing that "something must be done."
