Africa-Press – Cape verde. The UCID believes that environmental crimes were committed on São Vicente and expects action from the Attorney General’s Office in this regard. The Christian Democrats justify their position by citing the lack of concrete measures that could have minimized the impact of the rains that caused 9 deaths on the island.
This position was expressed by Councilman António Monteiro at a press conference held today near the Bela Vista Health Center to assess the island’s clearing and recovery efforts, 21 days after the passage of Storm Erin.
“It’s a topic I’ve been discussing in parliament and in the media: we need to pay attention to what’s happening in São Vicente, but nothing has been done. For example, we have retention basins here in the rivers, with six wedge valves, or another type of valve, with a diameter of 215 or 315 millimeters, which could drastically reduce the amount of water on Avenida 12 de Setembro. I’ve talked about this repeatedly, but no one has bothered to do it. Has anyone bothered to dredge the dikes, which we’ve talked about several times? No one has done anything. Therefore, without the containment infrastructure to reduce the water’s energy when it rains, the disaster was expected. If we had dredge the silting and taken certain technical measures, the damage would have been much less, and here we are, without a shadow of a doubt, facing an environmental crime.
On another front, UCID representatives elected in São Vicente state that the response to reclaiming the island remains slow and lacks the necessary equipment to clean it up.
“In First, I’d like to say that the current situation, at this very moment as I speak, should be slightly better. And it isn’t. It is because we still have open sewers, we still have hundreds of people whose homes were terribly damaged and are facing enormous amounts of floodwater behind their houses and in their yards. And it isn’t because the government is reacting extremely slowly. Twenty-one days later, it was time for a clear position from the Prime Minister regarding the measures that must be taken to restore normal life in São Vicente.
The Christian Democrats point to the need for specific machinery for cleaning and clearing work, namely rotary machines, draglines, and bulldozers, “to collect the large amounts of soil that have accumulated.”
António Monteiro points the finger at the lack of a work plan for the ongoing interventions and accuses the mayor of refusing technical support from the elected opposition parties.
“The City Council acted haphazardly [in responding to the crisis]. We, the UCID councilors, on Thursday, five days after the storm, told the mayor that we were willing to collaborate. He refused, saying that since we don’t take on any responsibilities, he had no responsibility for us. We could have contributed to the sewage situation. Personally, I could have taken care of that, cleaning the streets with the equipment, because it’s a job that, given my profession, I feel comfortable doing. Therefore, there’s too much strain on some people when that effort could be shared with others and a better quality of work could be done.
The São Vicente City Council announced on Friday a new package of post-storm measures to support local operators, including the forgiveness of rent debts at the municipal markets and Praça Estrela, as well as exemptions from the payment of these rents, the circulation tax on public transportation vehicles, and the exemption of business licenses for a period of 12 months, among others. Others.
The UCID welcomes the measures that, in its view, will “minimize” the negative impacts caused by the storm, but regrets that the package was not discussed with the diverse political sensitivities within the Mindelo municipality.
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