The problem with relying on the State docks authority, Docapesca, is that it's management says it will do things - but then doesn’t do them.
Faro mayor, Rogério Bacalhau, is at his wit’s end over the failure of Docapsca to carry out urgent repairs to the harbour walls before the surrounding street area collapses into the void being created below the pavement.
Sections of the harbour wall facing have fallen off - and continue to do so - and the mayor is concerned that seawater has got behind the wall and turned the underground area to mush.
Rogério Bacalhau wrote a stiff letter last autumn, saying at the time that Faro really can’t continue to wait for Docapesca to get around to fixing the problem.
Docapesca’s response was that its men would get around to doing the repair work as and when there was an investor for the planned, but by no means certain, marina development the far side of the railway line.
This response was designed to delay the repair work for several years but local press prodded Docapesca into action with the directors saying last October that the operation will start ‘next year’ and that 'the work had been scheduled,' although they were unable to supply a start date.
To date: still no action. Bacalhau has made several attempts to get an explanation as to why he is being blanked so he has written yet another letter to the president of Docapesca, "so that concrete measures are taken to solve the problems already listed in several previous letters.”
Bacalhau writes that "the harbour is silted up and at low tide the smell is nauseating, the waterproofing mosaics are falling off and causing dangerous water infiltration underground with consequent instability. There already have been several collapses in the surrounding pavements.
The mayor recalled that in November 2016 and in January of this year, "the relevant departments were alerted to the problem and the need for a plan to safeguard the entire area of the city. This now is a picture of neglect for those who live or visit Faro. This situation directly affects 500 families and professional or recreational users of the harbour."
So it goes on, with Bacalhau getting nowhere with Docapesca despite frequent requests.
This is the same type of situation faced daily by citizens trying to get a straight answer out of many of the government’s departments: if the mayor of Faro is getting nowhere with this particular instrument of the State, what hope is there for us mere mortals?
