It's not a project, it's “an idea”, despite having already been put on paper and its images are already known. the informal group Faro à Conversa promoted this Wednesday a debate on the joint vision that the Center for Marine Sciences (CCMar) of the Algarve and the Chamber of Faro have for the Commercial Port, which transforms it into a space that combines knowledge and tourism, with a Marina, but the conversation ended up focusing more on a set of general considerations, taking into account that, for the time being, there is no defined plan to change .
At the table were Rogério Bacalhau and Adelino Canário, representatives of the entities that came up with the idea, as well as Óscar Ferreira, a specialist in coastal hydrodynamics at the University of Algarve, and João Santos, representing the association Almargem.
From the "other side", in the audience of the auditorium of the Municipal Library of Faro, there were about two dozen people, most of whom, it was noticed, had already triggered several questions.
But the first doubts were asked by one of the members of the board. João Santos, from Almargem, made it clear from the beginning of his intervention that he had many reservations in relation to the proposal that had been presented moments before, not so much for the environmental impact it will have, since the area is «deeply degraded and artificialized» , but because of the stray way in which he considers that this project (which is not) came about.
«For me, it makes no sense to talk about all of this [proposal for the Commercial Port of Faro] ignoring everything around them», considered João Santos. This is because there is Bom João next door and there is a whole riverside area from Porto to the CP station waiting for a solution.
Nor is there a lack of ideas and projects. Just for Portos de Recreio, recalled the Almargem representative, several location proposals have already been put forward. The most palpable, since in this case it is really a project, which even has the Environmental Compliance Report (Recape) approved, is the port outside the current Dock of Faro, to be built on space gained from the Ria Formosa on the other side of the railway. But there was also mention of a marina near the Cais Neves Pires and two other locations near the Industrial Zone of Bom João, very close to the Commercial Pier.
«After all we stayed. Do we want on the Dock? At Neves Pires Pier? In Bom João? At the Commercial Pier? Everything?” he asked. “We have to give priority to nature. If a leisure port would already have an impact, more than one would be very bad», he defended.
And if the member of Almargem “has nothing against the scientific component”, the same does not happen in relation to the urban-tourist component, with which he says he disagrees. "Placing hotels there when a few hundred meters away is the Bom João Industrial Zone, where they can be installed, does not make sense", he considered.
João Santos also brought the homework done and left a set of recommendations: «creation of gardens, green spaces and leisure spaces in the riverside area; recovery of the Neves Pires saltpans; recovery of natural heritage; creation of nature itineraries; and creation of anchorages for owners of small boats».
On the other hand, requirements range from the «presentation of a global project, instead of isolated projects», as well as the «construction of a single recreational nautical equipment».
In the wake of these challenges, the mayor Rogério Bacalhau made a point of stressing, once again, that what is on the table «are a set of ideas, not a project». And he even said that he "has doubts" that the Port of Recreation outside the current dock, a Docapesca project, will ever go forward.
«If one day it is decided to proceed with this or another proposal for the Commercial Port of Faro, it will be necessary to carry out Environmental Impact Studies, but also economic, where the social component fits. This is an idea to be improved and complemented», he assured.
This was precisely what the members of the assistance sought to do, with suggestions and warnings relating to environmental, social, but also aesthetic issues, since it is necessary to take into account the visual impact of a development that will occupy 17 hectares on the Ria de Faro.
Suggestions that were, in general, welcomed by the authors of the idea, but which, like the very vision that was being discussed, collide with reality: any decision regarding the future of the Commercial Port of Faro it is up to the Administration of the Ports of Sines and Algarve and, ultimately, to the ministry of the Sea.
And if it is a fact that the Minister of the Sea, in an initiative that involved AMAL – Algarve Intermunicipal Community, created a commission to collect suggestions for the future of these infrastructures – the FarFormosa proposal for the Port of Faro was one of them - it is also true that there is still no decision on the part of the tutelage, which can even, at the limit, decide that everything remains the same and that the Port of Faro will continue to be a Commercial Port.
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