The PCP held in Beja, at Pax Julia's Cafeteria, an initiative entitled “To the Conversation about the Drought in Alentejo: causes, consequences, immediate and structural measures.”
Taking as a starting point the current dry period in Alentejo, and all its negative consequences, namely for agricultural and livestock production and for human supply itself, the PCP invited several specialists for a debate on the problems of water and the management of water resources and their impact on various aspects of the economy and social reality of the Alentejo and the Country.
The initiative had the intervention of João Dias, PCP's deputy in the National Assembly, allowed to gather an important collection of contributions that, based on the diagnosis of the current situation, contributed to the convergence of points of view, regarding the measures to be taken, want immediately, want the fundamental measures that are still lacking, dependent on political choices.
are to be highlighted, in addition to the presence and intervention of those responsible for the Regional Directorates of the Alentejo and Algarve of the PCP, Rui Salgado's contributions, professor at the University of Évora, on climate and climate change; by Isaurindo Oliveira, Consultant, about agriculture and irrigation; by Professor Ricardo Serralheiro, about the type of agriculture, ways and cultures for water conservation; by José Figueira, member of the Public Water Association, on water use and management; by Maria Jose Roxo, geographer and researcher, on desertification in the lower Alentejo; and Afonso do Ó, researcher and consultant, about development, agriculture and water.
The PCP initiative will now continue with the phased dissemination of all contributions and with the continuation of a dedicated intervention, responsible and based on concrete ideas.
The PCP reaffirms that only with the implementation of structural measures, with a real role for the State, with options opposite to the current ones regarding the use of water resources; with another land use and management policy, and the use of existing infrastructure (from the outset the multi-purpose development of Alqueva) according to the public interest, populations and regional and national development (and not to feed businesses that see water and soil as financial assets) whether a problem can be resolved, having causes and consequences, also responsible – the successive governments of the PS, PSD e CDS.
