The Secretary of State for the Sea Manuel Pinto de Abreu was this Tuesday, the 6th, in the Algarve, for meetings with the mayors of Olhão and Tavira Chambers and to visit places that have been waiting for works and decisions for a long time. O Sul Informação found out, brought no news.
In Tavira, the purpose of the trip was to visit the riverside area and the site planned for the new Fishing Port, as well as listening to the needs of the local fishing community. The government official saw everything, talked to mayors and fishermen, but did not leave any news about the concrete beginning of the work on the Fishing Port.
During his visit to the municipality of Tavir, the Government representative said that this meeting is of great interest, as it is essential to define priorities through observation of reality.
Manuel Pinto de Abreu admitted that “the fishermen [of Tavira] deserve a Fishing Port”, but stresses that, at the moment, what is at stake is the guarantee of “the safety of people and goods”.
In the opinion of the Secretary of State for the Sea, it is essential to “establish a hierarchy” and he adds that this work falls within the “specifications” of maritime affairs, although he said he does not know “whether this will be the first work to advance in Tavira ”, not least because, according to his words, “there is a line that is around the two million euros stipulated for this intervention, which will only cover the first phase”.
On the occasion, the Mayor Jorge Botelho reinforced the need to carry out this work and considered it “absolutely necessary”, underlining that this process has been dragging on for over twenty years.
As the mayor said, “this has been an aspiration of the Tavirenses for a long time”, so it is important to act in the face of the desires of the seamen.
Jorge Botelho also took the opportunity to make known the current condition of the rising jetty at the Tavira bar, which requires intervention, as well as the need to clean and dredge the river in order to facilitate its navigability.
For the City Council, fishing plays an important role in the local economy and, as such, deserves to be supported. In this regard, better working conditions have already been provided to fishermen, namely through the construction of fishing shelters in the parishes of Cabanas, Santa Luzia and Luz (Torre d'Aires), with the construction of fourteen more supports in Tavira being planned.
In a philosophy of supporting the fishing class, the municipality also provided a space for the headquarters of the Association of Shipowners and Fishermen of Tavira (APTAV).
In Olhão, the Sul Informação he found that the topics on the table, in the conversations with the City Council, were also the Fishing Port, the competition for the management of the Marina/Porto de Recreio and the need to carry out dredging in the Armona bar.
The president of the Chamber drew the attention of the Secretary of State for the Sea to the urgency of "finding a solution" to those problems, but what about the Sul Informação you know, he didn't get any response or commitment from Pinto de Abreu.
About the Tavira Fishing Port project
The construction of the Tavira Fishing Port provides for the mooring of eighty boats (seventy boats with a length between 12 and 18m and ten with a length of less than 12m) and should occupy an area of 4,8ha.
The project includes a workshop for small repairs, one for dressing and one for unloading and marketing fish, which include port services, the auction and warehouses for merchants.
There are also two quay walls that delimit the entrance to the basin, three walkways for parking, a slipway ramp, a marginal retention at the southern edge of the basin, a floating dock for fuel supply inside the port and a tidal grid.
The plan is also to dredge the entire section of the Gilão river between the fishing port and the Tavira bar, as well as the diversion of the access road to Sítio das Quatro Águas.
The project under the responsibility of IPTM - Instituto Portuario e dos Transportes Maritimes has an estimated value of 10 million euros, which will be financed through the Central Administration Investment and Development Expenditure Program (PIDDAC).
The public tender for the respective execution having already taken place, the Municipality of Tavira says it is "serenely waiting for a decision by the current Government to award the work".
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