The total or partial reconstruction of the 50 first dwelling houses affected by the great August fire in Monchique, will cost «about 2 million euros», money that should start to reach those injured by the fire «next week».
The list of victims who will receive support to rebuild their homes, as they have their main address, has been reduced from 61 to "close to 50", but is already validated, assured the mayor of Monchique Rui André.
«We carried out a survey of the affected houses, together with the Institute for Housing and Urban Rehabilitation (IHRU), and recently validated the list, with the collaboration of the presidents of the Parish Councils. There were some that were excluded, because they were presented as their first home and they are not, others because people did not present the necessary documents – although they can still do so», explained the Monchiquense mayor to the journalists.
After “a screening and an evaluation”, the number of homes to be supported “reduced a little”, settling in the order of five dozen. Now, the different entities involved are preparing to sign «a protocol that will cover the beginning of the transfer of money to people, so that they can start rehabilitation as soon as possible'.
The signature of this document “is for days”. «It was even scheduled for this Monday, but it didn't happen, due to the correction of some values. But I think it will happen this week and that, next week, people will start to receive the money to rebuild their homes», said Rui André.
Even so, "unfortunately", it will be "a small number" of victims who will be able to receive support, "because most houses require a more consistent intervention". The victims who will soon receive support are those who need to recover "small annexes, damaged parts of the house or roofs, which are partial destructions and works that are exempt from licensing".
In other cases, it is necessary to present a project, which brings “some problems in terms of reconstruction. This process depends a lot on people's will and the type of projects that have to be done. Obviously you can't go over this legal part, because some of the affected buildings were, in part, illegal. We are trying to take the opportunity to regularize these constructions», he illustrated.
The most important thing, says Rui André, “is that situations that allegedly happened in other parts of the country do not recur here. It is preferable for this initial phase to take a little longer, but for the processes to be completed successfully and without problems”.
As announced by the Minister of the Environment, on a visit to Monchique, days after the fire, the IHRU will not provide the full amount of money needed to carry out the works. « There is a part that is the injured party. But there is already an agreement with Cáritas, which has pledged to cover this amount and will support the private component of this project», revealed Rui André.
An extra support that should allow everyone who has been displaced by the fire to have a home to live again. And there are many different situations.
"Each case is different. There are people who lived in rented houses and decided to move towards buying their own house. Others decided to build the house elsewhere. There are several solutions that we are discussing with people. Unfortunately, these are processes that take some time, perhaps more than we initially estimated», assured Rui André.
The mayor of Monchique also said that they are trying to find a solution so that, even in cases where it is mandatory to present a project, the procedures are “in some way simplified. Because the truth is that, if we assume that these works have to comply with the same procedures as the others, we will be facing a kind of ordeal, between requests for authorizations to the ICNF, the CCDR do Algarve and a number of entities».
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