IL President Rui Rocha accused the Socialist government this Wednesday of neglecting to solve the water problem, namely that it was only now that measures against drought were implemented that should have already been implemented.
“We have further evidence of the negligence of the socialist government still in power. Because all this was predictable, and the solutions that are now beginning to be put into practice […] These are decisions that should have been thought out and implemented a long time ago,” said the president of the Liberal Initiative (IL).
The problems associated with drought and water shortages in the Algarve were the main topic of the meetings that Rui Rocha held this morning in Silves with the directors of Águas do Algarve and the Association of Irrigators and Beneficiaries of Silves, Lagoa and Portimão.
Rui Rocha recalled that the year 2024 begins and the “solutions” under preparation, such as the use of wastewater or the commissioning of desalination solutions, “will only be available in 2026…”
The Liberal leader stressed that his party has “huge concerns about water and very specific proposals,” arguing that “Portugal as a whole needs more dams” and is “moving forward on desalination.”
Rui Rocha also wondered whether “the time has come to think about a system that will allow water to be transported from areas of the country where it is more abundant to areas where it is scarce…”.
“I remember that the Government has been in power for more than eight years and, therefore, all this should have been foreseen, foreseen, and solutions should have been proposed much earlier so that we did not find ourselves in this very serious situation. the situation now,” the IL leader insisted.
The structural problem of water scarcity in the Algarve prompted the government to decide in mid-2023 to build a desalination plant in the municipality of Albufeira.
The project was at the public consultation stage until December 19, and the tender for construction work on this block was to be announced by the end of January.
Águas do Algarve has not yet succeeded in expropriating all the village buildings needed to build the station, and the impact this will have on the start of work is unpredictable.
Regarding the demands of the PSP and GNR police forces that their salary be equivalent to that of the PJ, Rui Rocha was “in solidarity” with this position: “We do not understand why there is something for some and not for others”, – he said.
The IL leader said that if the party succeeds in becoming the government, it “will be able to provide these subsidies” to the PSP and PPP.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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