Socialist Party MP Miguel Freitas has questioned the government about the demolition of property in the Ria Formosa islands of the Algarve and about the relocation of displaced home owners in the Polis programme to clear the islands of buildings.

The MP pointed out that there seems to be a process in place where the poor are being moved on with little or no provision for their housing needs by Faro and Olhão councils.

The demolition of homes and shacks on São Lourenço Island in the Ria Formosa began today in the continuing purge of the inconvenient and the poor.

The families that live on this island are waiting to be re-housed or at least offered temporary accommodation in this close to freezing weather but nothing has been prepared of offered by Olhão council, according to local pressure group Olhão Livre, which asks mayor António Pina where these displaced people are meant to be sleeping from now on.

Águas do Algarve has decided to open the process for the design and construction of a new Wastewater Treatment Plant to serve the citizens of Faro and Olhão in a €13.5 million project, according to Olhão council.

In a statement, the mayor of Olhão, António Miguel Pina, welcomes the decision which he considers "a victory for the local authority and an excellent present for Olhão."

The environmental group Quercus has taken a stance on the issue of dwellings on the Ria Formosa islands and has stated its position in no uncertain terms in a new report.

The nature association considers it "essential" that all private and ‘without public utility’ buildings in the Ria Formosa are demolished so the sand dunes and associated wildlife can return to their natural states.

The National Civil Defence Authority today announced that it is helping get a rudimentary electricity supply to the Ria Formosa islands of Armona and Culatra as the EDP supply has been cut off since Thursday and depsite millpond conditions, technicans are unable to fix the cable due to 'bad weather.'

The Authority is working within its public interest remit and using helicopter transport to get three emergency generators to Armona and Culatra islands to linkm into the power supply that was cut off on Thursday afternoon at 3pm.

The mayor of Olhão today welcomed news that after decades, dredging will take place in the Ria Formosa area during 2015, but took the opportunity to accuse Polis, the management body for the Ria Formosa, of failing to make the many investments that originally had been planned for the county.

The Minister of the Environment announced on Wednesday that €8 million would at last be spent on dredging among the Ria Formosa islands, the upgrading of the access to Faro beach and the construction of a car park there.

Local pressure group Olhão Livre has published a damning blog into the continuing pollution in the Ria Formosa where thousands of fishermen make their living, 10,000 is its estimate.

Blame is levelled at a complicit council which is aware of the pollution that affects the harvesting of bivalves in the Ria area, but there may be more to the story.

The Secretary of State for the Environment finally has stated the real reason for his insistance that the demolition of properties in settlements on Culatra, Farol and Hanagres Islands situated in the Ria Formosa’s Maritime Public Domain must and will go ahead.

Far from being a matter of health and safety, Paulo Lemos said yesterday that the "land belongs to us all" and the buildings are 'illegal.'