‘Three years and five months later’: PCP criticizes government for delay in announcing water plan for Alentejo

This Monday, the PCP criticized the government for announcing the Alentejo Water Efficiency Plan “three years and five months after the publication of its drafting order”, calling it a “propaganda operation”.

In a statement, the Alentejo Regional Authority (DRA) PKP regrets that the government only on Thursday, in Évora, announced “with pomp and circumstance” that the said plan, after approval by the Council of Ministers as a whole, is now being put out for discussion with the public.

“Let us recall that the order determining its preparation, dated December 13, 2019 and published on January 14, 2020, established that the grounds for the plan must be presented to the responsible ministers within 90 days,” the report says.

“This announcement is, in fact, another propaganda operation of the PS government, which does not deceive either the lack of transparency and clarity in the content and, above all, the financing of the plan, nor the heavy responsibility of the PS in the systematic failure to take measures. in this area,” the document accuses.

The Communists also recall that the PS, which “just elected” the Alentejo Regional Water Efficiency Plan as “one of the highlights” of the Near Government initiative that took place in the Évora area, is the same one that “refused” , as part of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) revision process, a proposal from the PCP so that the PRR “may consider” financial resources to implement said plan.

“They did not vote for the draft resolution of the PCP in the Assembly of the Republic, which provided for a connection between Alqueva and Monte da Rocha, an action that has now been announced as one of the main measures of this plan,” they add.

The PCP DRA also recalls that in October 2022, the PS voted against the PCP’s proposal to develop a National Structural Drought Prevention and Monitoring Plan.

“He (PS) voted on June 16 against the PKP draft resolution on immediate measures to support the agricultural and livestock sectors to combat the effects of the drought,” he laments.

DRA PCP also recalls that over time it has developed a “wide range of initiatives” on water, from holding debates to putting forward positions and initiatives at the level of local authorities, the Assembly of the Republic and the European Parliament.

“It is in this sense that he will continue to act, finding that already during July he is preparing initiatives aimed at deepening and expanding the discussion of the drought situation, its causes and consequences, as well as the necessary structural solutions,” the message says. in the document.

The government approved on Thursday the Alentejo Regional Water Efficiency Plan, a document to be publicly discussed, with “about 70 measures” to improve the resilience of the area, with a total investment of “nearly 1,000 million euros”.

“The Alentejo Water Efficiency Plan concerns the hydrographic regions of Sado, Mira and Guadiana,” said the Minister for Environment and Climate Change in Évora.

Duarte Cordeiro said that the Alentejo Regional Water Efficiency Plan is the result of a joint effort between the Ministries of Environment and Agriculture, which provides “about 70 measures” to be implemented in the short and medium term to “strengthen the resilience of the territory, but also to identify ways to respond on the issue of climate change.