Portugal Safety and Security Report Wednesday 7^th June 2023

 

Good morning – We start with the drought conditions in the Algarve, far different to the very heavy rain experienced in the north of the mainland and Madeira over the last few days.

Safe Communities is a member of the Local Council for Monitoring Climate Action in the Municipality of Loulé (CLA) and therefore participated in the 8th meeting of the CLA on Monday. The meeting was aimed at learning new ways of adapting to droughts, mitigating floods impact, and tackling water shortage in the Algarve. All very relevant.

It was clear from the Minister who attended that, despite the measures already adopted in the Algarve, such as reducing the quota of water for agriculture and golf at the Odeleite dam or the closure of municipal swimming pools, there may be more in the pipeline. If consumption increases substantially and the measures we have adopted are not enough, we will probably have to take more», he admitted.

“We must progressively introduce rational measures, but we also know that we must bet a lot on reducing consumption: the level of consumption this year, in the Algarve, is higher than last year”, he added.

It is not surprising water consumption has increased as in April/May we experienced higher than normal temperatures and there was an increase in tourism. It is important therefore that everyone does their best to conserve water – it is an individual, municipal and national responsibility.

The Madeira is how suffering from an unseasonable depression which has caused record breaking rainfall of over 600 mm of rain in parts of Madeira. We also have folds and heavy downpours accompanied by large hailstorms in parts of the north especially, and also the centre. I between all this there has been some moderate fires but not of a major scale.

What do fires and floods have in common? Simple the effects of extreme weather caused by climate change. In the short term there is little we can do to change this course, but there is much that can be done in reducing the impacts. This why climate adaptation and being prepared by taking the right actions now is so important.

Safe Communities is very much involved in this process in terms of disaster management through risk communication, awareness and preparedness.

On a completely different subject yesterday we posted an item of security of passwords. Many families have internet connected devices for their child or home. Internet connected devices are devices or toys that are connected to the internet via WiFi, Bluetooth or a physical connection like a USB cable. They can also be connected to each other.

Internet connected devices can send and receive data, respond to voice commands and be controlled remotely using a smartphone app. They can also be called ‘the internet of things’. Internet connected devices can have similar risks to devices like smartphones and tablets. For example: baby monitors, children’s tablets and even remote-control helicopters or drone toys, can be hacked and used by people outside of your home These can be more likely to happen if the devices aren’t set up properly and this includes the setting pf passwords. Many will come with a pre-set password for instance 00000000 so it is important to change this to a secure/strong password which you have not used elsewhere. Also check the default setting as this may include a GPS locator which has been activated! A frightening thought for a young child vulnerable in so many ways

News:

Oscar Depression in Madeira: number of homeless people continues to

The Civil Protection Service of Madeira registered a total of 71 occurrences and in Funchal alone there are already 22 people displaced. The rain, meanwhile, began to give a truce.

In Madeira, the rain has started to slow down but the effects of the Óscar depression are still present on the island. SIC reporter Marta Caires updated the latest data on the effects of depression.

“The number of evacuees increased throughout this Tuesday and there are now 22 people left without housing in Funchal alone”, said the journalist.

The Civil Protection Service of Madeira registered a total of 71 occurrences between Monday and Tuesday related to the passage of the depression through the archipelago, mobilizing 72 means and 178 operators.

The south coast and the mountainous regions of the island have been under red warning since 15:00 on Monday due to the forecast of heavy and persistent rain due to the passage of the Óscar depression.

According to the SIC journalist, “the number of landslides and homelessness continues to increase”, taking into account the conditions, the Municipal Civil Protection decided that the best thing is to remove people.

 

Electrical failure affects services of telecommunications operators

Customers of the three telecommunications operators – Meo, Nos and Vodafone – began to report constraints in accessing the internet, shortly before 1600 hrs on Tuesday. The situation was due to a failure in Equinix’s Lisbon ‘data centre’, confirmed the technology company, which has already ensured that all services were “quickly restored”

Today there was a brief interruption in the ‘data center’ of Portugal LS1 International Business Exchange (1BX), which affected some Equinix services”, reads a note made public at 19:00.

The ‘data center’ platform assured that the situation – which was said to be an electrical failure – was “quickly controlled” and that services have already been restored. According to the same note, Equinix is ​​investigating the cause of the problem, which affected, among other companies, several telecommunications operators.

Equinix is ​​present on five continents with more than 200 data centers and provides servers that allow companies around the world to connect with customers and partners anywhere in the world, in addition to storing information.

According to the GigaPIX website, which aggregates national traffic statistics, there was a sharp drop from 15:55 onwards. Traffic values ​​started to recover from 16:30, but still at half-gas.

Caixadireta service suffers breakdown

A malfunction also caused inconvenience to customers of Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD), with the Caixadireta service out of operation. The situation was considered resolved by the bank at 18:00 this Tuesday.

 

Minister does not exclude further restrictive measures due to lack of water in the Algarve.

On 5^th June 2023 Safe Communities as a member of the Local Council for Monitoring Climate Action in the Municipality of Loulé (CLA) participated in the 8th meeting on climate change adaptation in the municipality of Loulé.

The meeting was aimed at learning new ways of adapting to droughts, mitigating floods impact, and tackling water shortage in the Algarve.

Duarte Cordeiro, Minister for the Environment and Climate Action, addressed the audience about, inter alias, waste management and recycling, and what the government is doing in order to reach the same recycling standard as most European countries. Other sessions addressed the role of the private sector in promoting adaptation measures to the changing climate.

Mar Shopping was an emblematic example of how to best make use of renewable energy to make the centre the most sustainable. Practices included implementing solar panels, recycling practices, reusing rainwater, installing sustainable internal lighting system among others. It was indeed a great meeting and we look forward to the next one to follow up on the developments of the initiatives presented today!

Duarte Cordeiro, did not exclude, in the coming months, there will be even more restrictive measures due to the lack of water in the Algarve.

Speaking to journalists, on the side lines of the initiative, Duarte Cordeiro admitted that, despite the measures already adopted in the Algarve, such as reducing the quota of water for agriculture and golf at the Odeleite dam or the closure of municipal swimming pools, there may be more in the pipeline.

If consumption increases substantially and the measures we have adopted are not enough, we will probably have to take more», he admitted.

Asked about what kind of actions could be foreseen, Duarte Cordeiro did not want to “make speculations”.

“We must progressively introduce rational measures, but we also know that we must bet a lot on reducing consumption: the level of consumption this year, in the Algarve, is higher than last year», he added”.