The floods that swept through Albufeira’s downtown area last November 1st, caused an estimated €20 million of damage and associated losses, €5 million of which were not covered by insurance policies.
Over 200 residents, bar owners and shopkeepers were affected as a prolonged downpour overwhelmed the inadequate flood relief systems completed in defiance of expert opinion by the council, led at the time by Desidério Silva who has remained silent on the issue.
The extensice flooding hit the national and international news and a series of men from Lisbon, wearing suits and striding around in wellingtons, toured the Albufeira area earnestly to assure TV cameras that emergency funds immediately would be available for those that had been flooded.
The then Minister of Internal Administration, João Calvão da Silva, visited Albufeira to decide whether to issue an 'official disaster' categorisation to enable the release of one category of emergency fund. He decided against it but three other funds were in line to help pay for the clean-up and to get shops and bars open for business before the critical Christmas and New Year period.
The former Secretary of State for the Environment, Paulo Lemos said at the time that the government is working with the local authority in developing a flood prevention plan and Albufeira 'is likely to be classified as a flood risk zone,' but avoided the question of compensation.
In mid-December 2015, a group of MPs from the Environment Committee visited Albufeira, leading its chairman Pedro Soares to comment,
"The emergency fund to help resolve these situations is underway," adding that it is "important that business owners are able to re-start before the New Year."
The total amount distributed so far from the three applicable emergency funds is zero, much to the dismay of the current mayor of Albufeira, Carlos Silva e Sousa who expected faster action by central government to deal with this disaster.
Carlos Silva e Sousa assured everyone today that the fault is not that of the council, adding that the latest information he received was that there is to be at least one more meeting to “review the damage that is not eligible for compensation from the emergency fund.”
It seems that Albufeira literally has been left hanging out to dry with the new government as disinterested as the last in compensating those whose income was affected by the hapless efforts of the former mayor of Albufeira to avoid the precise situation that ocurred in the city.
