Suggests authorities are ‘disrespecting law’, even trying to wriggle round compensation payments
Rui Amores, the Algarve’s environmental lawyer with a number of significant victories already under his belt, has turned his attention to the plans for a €90 million desalination plant behind the world’s ‘No 1 beach’, to suggest skullduggery is afoot.
In his regular newsletter, he addresses some of the questions that go beyond the arguments of PAS – the platform for sustainable water – which has already highlighted the enormous amount of toxic brine this process proposes to ‘bury’ in the sea.
Amores’ focus is on the law: the fact that although a €90 million public tender has been launched, the land earmarked for the project “has not been secured”. (Indeed, at least one landowner is staunchly challenging a derisory compulsory purchase order.)
Amores suspects that authorities (in this case, Águas do Algarve) are moving forwards with the plan because they already know the outcome of the environmental impact assessment (which has not been performed).
“How can you explain something like this?” He queries – particularly as it is already very clear that there will be serious environmental consequences from the plan, hence the talks PAS has been having, and means to continue having, at a European level.
Either Águas do Algarve is acting in ignorance, or, he suggests “with a complete lack of shame, with total disregard for the approval procedure for a project of this size and with such an environmental impact”.
At a public session organised by PAS some time ago, “two gentlemen, one from APA and the other from the board of Águas do Algarve, took the project’s approval for granted. At the time, we were still in the public discussion phase. It’s like knowing the final score of a game before it’s over…
“We’re convinced that the idea of the Algarve’s ‘water lords’, with the more than certain connivance of APA, is to create a whirlwind of (administrative) acts that will make it difficult (for citizens) to react to this project. However, I have the idea that they’re going to be wrong”, he writes.
“They’ll be wrong because they’re showing that they don’t respect the law.
“They’ll be wrong because they want to force a shoddy expropriation for ridiculous sums on those who don’t want to sell the land”.
And this is where the environmental lawyer brings up another ‘strange aspect’ to this case that even PAS has not highlighted: “Águas do Algarve is trying to deceive all the owners of the land through which the pipes that carry the seawater to the desalination plant and return with the waste produced in the meantime will have to pass.
“Take a look at the plan below.
“The purple line represents the adductor system, in other words, the water collection system.This pipe runs through a number of private properties (…) none of these property owners have received a proposal to establish an easement accompanied by the corresponding financial compensation.
“More simply put, an easement acts as an authorisation for pipes to pass through land that is privately owned”, he explains. “In the same way that when a particular company wants to run electricity cables over a property, it has to contract an easement with the owner of that land, which involves paying a certain amount of compensation”.
This means Águas do Algarve S.A. “wants to make children in other people’s wives”, Amores uses a well-worn Portuguese phrase.
“It deceives owners by saying that it is “just” a ditch to pass a pipe through and that everything will be restored – when in reality the owners have the right to be compensated for this passage and if they don’t agree to this compensation, Águas do Algarve will have to start an expropriation process with all the inherent procedures”.
But none of this information has been made clear, “not even when an information session was organised”, he continues.
In Amores’ legal opinion, this is beyond disrespect – and he believes it will have consequences.
Foreign citizens are already rallying against this plan – mostly for the environmental downsides. But also because of the relatively small amount of water the plant will ‘produce’, while channelling hundreds of thousands of cubic metres of untreated brine back into the ocean.
Rui Amores equally suspects the licenses for this project are not yet in place.
In short: “they are putting the cart before the horse” – and in his view, trying to push forwards with a bad project that “won’t solve anything. On the contrary it will create tremendous environmental problems”.
The Resident will put all these points to Águas do Algarve, in the hope of a detailed response.
Meantime, citizens against the plan are planning a further meeting this weekend, to coordinate strategies.
natasha.donn@portugalresident.com
