Rui André today defended in Brussels the intervention and support of the European Union in the situation of drought that the Algarve is facing.
The mayor of Monchique made this appeal to the Committee on the Environment, Climate Change and Energy, as a member of the European Committee of the Regions, during a session in which the implementation of a European Ecological Pact in partnership with government bodies was discussed. local and regional.
For Rui André, «the situation in the Algarve is really the most worrying in recent years and, as the problem is not circumstantial, the response and the measures to be adopted will also have to be structural and with the certainty that similar situations can be repeated with more often in the future'.
Taking this into account, the Monchiquense mayor defends «the creation of a contingency plan to face this situation of drought and the need to implement some emergency measures, with emphasis on the creation of a seawater desalination plant , through the process of “reverse osmosis”, such as in the neighboring Spanish region of Andalusia or in Porto Santo, Madeira, the only one in Portuguese territory».
"Extreme drought phenomena increasingly frequent and the country's continued desertification will continue to fuel the loss of biodiversity and the disappearance of some species, which makes this issue a global problem in the context of ongoing climate change," he added.
Rui André also took the opportunity to talk about the problems of interiority in the Algarve mountains.
«The necessary repopulation of rural areas needs clear and objective policies and community support, under the risk of losing the fundamental balance so that the increasingly evident physical desertification of the territory can be fought with the human presence, associated with its habits and actions, with emphasis on agriculture and the consequent presence of animals, which play a fundamental role here», he said.
The mayor of Monchique called for “European support for small projects, at municipal and infra-municipal level, which can make a difference in the resilience and sustainability of the national territory and of these communities in particular”.
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