Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-04-14-Speech-4-146"
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"en.20050414.23.4-146"2
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"Mr President, as has been mentioned several times today, Portugal is experiencing possibly its most severe drought since 1990 or 1981. The figures are clear. As a consequence of this drought, the Alentejo and Algarve regions are at less than 50% of the maximum ground water capacity.
It is April, and as things stand around 25% of Portuguese municipalities have implemented precautionary measures to offset the effects of the drought. If I mention these figures, and all those that we have heard here today, with particularly strong emphasis, I do so because these have been the most devastated regions of the Portuguese mainland in recent years. I mention this to you, because these were the areas that received support from the Solidarity Fund when it was activated following the fires in 2003, in which thousands of people saw their livelihoods and their possessions go up in smoke. I mention the 2004 fires, which ravaged everything that had stoutly resisted the raging fire of 2003. I mention the areas that are worst affected by the enlargement and that, in theory, became wealthy overnight due to the well-documented statistical effect.
The people who have suffered most are all those who had for many years shown strength and resolve in the face of disaster after disaster, people who make a living from the land, from livestock, from forests, from tourism and from the environment, people of meagre resources. They have suffered from the drought caused by the weather and from the water shortage, because the reservoirs that ought to act as a safety net are already down to just 30 to 40% of useful capacity.
Commissioner, this would not have happened, or would have been appreciably less severe, if at least in the south the Commission showed it was ready to settle its differences with Portugal over the Odelouca dam and the remaining reservoir network. This situation is dragging on and has led us into the difficulties in which we find ourselves at the moment. I therefore ask you, Commissioner, whether you are prepared – whether the Commission is prepared – to solve this structural problem, so that in the future the people do not have to see such disasters happening again and again.
I naturally thank the Commission for all of the proposals that it has tabled here today as emergency solutions, yet as many Members of this House have said, what we need are practical proposals, some of which are on the table and simply need the Commission’s approval."@en1
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