The bitter row over government plans to demolish 600 island homes in Ria Formosa has escalated this week with Faro council unanimously throwing its weight behind threatened islanders.
As citizens blogsite Olhão Livre points out, the decision to raze the homes is grossly unfair as elsewhere politicians and “people with influence” get away with building “wherever they like” in the waterside area.
Indeed, Olhão Livre maintains “those with power” can even build “in the water”.
Despite the unrest, the Secretary of State for the Environment Paulo Lemos remains intransigent. Talking to Lusa on Tuesday, he said the demolitions were part of the POLIS environmental protection calendar, and would be going ahead within the next few months.
But as opponents complain, the POLIS calendar appears to have “nothing to do with environmental protection”.
“It is all about demolitions! They don’t even think of upgrading or redeveloping,” householders’ spokesman Feliciano Júlio told reporters, adding that Lemos’ news has come like a bombshell.
“There has not been any kind of dialogue with homeowners,” he explained. “We don’t know what is going to happen to us. We don’t know anything about rehousing plans.”
In fact, residents’ greatest fears centre on the fact that there may be no rehousing plans for the few islanders who have nowhere else to go.
Olhão Livre maintains that the government assured these people (people without second homes) that their houses would be saved.
“Once again the government lied,” writes the blogsite.
As the unrest escalates, with forums like Olhão Livre exhorting householders to “fight” and “organise” themselves into a community force, Faro council is backing homeowners, saying there are far more pressing matters that POLIS could be getting on with.
Again, Paulo Lemos disagrees, saying the “pressing matters” of a new bridge to Faro island and dredging within the Ria – an intervention fishermen say is vital to avoid future accidents – cannot be catered for under the current POLIS anyway.
Lemos is in hot water as the government appears to be changing the reasons for the demolitions at every turn.
Not long ago a spokesman was quoted in newspapers as saying they were necessary for people’s own good, as sea levels were rising and civil protection could not be expected to continually bear the cost of rescuing homeowners when their properties flooded, but now Lemos is suggesting the houses are simply on land that should “belong to all of us”.
“We cannot let Public Domain be occupied by whoever decides to act on their own initiative,” he told Lusa.
The demolitions, confirmed recently in the government’s official newspaper Diário da Republica, are scheduled for properties on Hangares, Farol and Culatra islands.
By NATASHA DONN
