The wreckage of three shanty town dwellings in Faro, destroyed by fire on Monday 16th of December, are to be cleared away to allow space for an organic vegetable garden.
Nine people were made homeless after the blaze, though to have been caused by the ignition of a gas bottle.
Faro’s new mayor, Rogério Bacalhao, said today, "we are going to have an organic garden to grow produce for the community of Horta da Areia," adding that that the creation of agricultural land in place of the burnt out houses is supported by the Regional Directorate of Agriculture and Fisheries of the Algarve, and the Silva Leal Foundation which has been based in the Horta da Areia vicinity for over ten years.
The new garden is an extension of one that already exists in the Horta da Areia slum, a dismal neighbourhood created on a strictly temporary basis after April 25th 1974 to house immigrant families from former Portuguese colonies.
The three families displaced by the destruction of their shacks are currently living in temporary accommodation in Faro, paid for by Social Services up to a limit of 30 days. They have no possessions and are living in small rooms in a boarding house.
During the campaign for the September local elections, the successful candidate Rogério Bacalhau pledged to "clean up this neighbourhood where 60 families live in degrading housing conditions." It was not imagined at the time that he had a large vegetable garden in mind and it is not clear how this will help the 300 residents move to alternative accommodation more in keeping with the current standards of C21st council provision.
Bacalhau said that the council is working to re-house the families left homeless by the fire, but admitted he has no solutions for the other 60 families that are living in housing that was temporary in 1974.
The mayor's election promise to the Horta da Areia residents now has been diluted by the inclusion of the phrase 'by the end of the mandate' giving himself a further 4 years in which to rehouse these people.
Faro's Left Bloc has spotted that the mayor is hardly rushing to help these people and the creation of a vegetable patch may be misinterpreted if not explained fully, but almost certainly is likely to bring ridicule early on in his tenure, and an inevitable comparision to Marie Antoinette's comment "Let them eat cake," (Qu'ils mangent de la brioche) except this time it is organic vegetables.
