Local MP Paulo Sá has pushed the government on the need for dredging at the tail end of the Ria Formosa at Fabrica to the east of Tavira near Cacela Velha.
Paulo Sá, the Faro Communist party MP, has officially questioned the Ministry of Environment on the urgent need for dredging after a delegation from his party visited the area and met with the local community of fishermen and shellfishermen who explained their exasperation at the problems that increasingly hinder their efforts to earn a living.
"The economic activities of this local community have been badly damaged and in some cases made impossible due to the silting up of the navigation channels," said Sá in his questioning.
This sedimentation is clearly visible at low tide, with the sand bar and the navigation channels almost disappearing. The area actually is navigable for only four hours a day and shellfish farms are being destroyed by the build up of silt.
"In an area where there already more than 70 shellfish nurseries, the production of bivalves is at risk due to government inaction," noted Sá, adding his voice to the many complaints from the fishermen in the Ria Formosa area between Faro and Fuseta. Sewage and silt are not conducive to the government’s new emphasis on the sea as a cure-all for Portugal’s economic ailments.
Some investors have lost all as further production of shellfish is impossible and requests for help and at least explanation from the Portuguese Environment Agency have been met with a totally unacceptable yet predictable silence.
The MP questioned the government over the harm already done to fishing and the production of shellfish, and indeed to sea tourism caused by the heavy siltation of the navigation channels.
