The Algarve Situation Report Wednesday 8th November 2023
by Mike Evans
Good day to you all and welcome to the latest Algarve Report bringing you information and news of all things connected to safety and security. We start this report with the news that an earthquake was felt by many people across the region on Sunday. A 3.4 magnitude earthquake on the Richter scale was recorded this Sunday with its epicentre located approximately eight kilometres from Monchique at 9.18pm.
According to the Portuguese Institute for the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA), the earthquake “did not cause personal or material damage” but was “felt with maximum intensity IV/V (Modified Mercalli scale) in the municipalities of Albufeira and Lagoa. “It was also felt with less intensity in the municipalities of Beja (Beja), Monchique, Portimão, and Silves (Faro),” it added. When we posted the news on our Facebook page many of our followers felt it or “heard” it. Luckily there was no damage reported.
Whilst the region has seen a fair amount of rain in the past week there is a warning from a University of Algarve researcher that unless we see a lot more rain over the winter the Algarve will still be in a drought situation. According to Algarve University researcher Nuno Loureiro, if this hydrological year is not “generous”, next year, the water crisis “will break out in full force”.
The south of Portugal is being increasingly affected by drought, and if it doesn’t rain this year, the country will struggle with a “water crisis”, especially in the Algarve and the Alentejo, said researcher Nuno Loureiro. “The reserves we have no longer guarantee a year [of consumption], or guarantee them with many limitations. And faced with this situation, there are no easy answers, no easy solutions, but there are solutions that have to be adopted and go through planning and serious supervision”, he argued.
The same source acknowledged that domestic consumption is among the areas where action must be taken to make water consumption more sustainable, and this “is managed by price, not managed with “pink” advertising campaigns”.
The researcher, who studied water resources, said that management also involves “things that are completely unthinkable in today’s Algarve”, such as, for example, the “spread of private swimming pools”, which he classified as “absurd” in a scenario of water scarcity.
Now a look at some of the other news from the region in the past week.
Legionella’ outbreak closes municipal swimming pools in Olhão stadium
An outbreak of ‘legionella’ led to the temporary closure of the municipal swimming pool complex and the changing rooms at the Olhão Municipal Stadium, the municipality revealed today.
In a statement, Olhão City Council said that signs of the development of ‘legionella’ culture had been detected in those two pieces of equipment, after monitoring the hot sanitary waters of municipal public sports facilities.
In conjunction with the Health Authority , the municipality decreed the closure of the entire swimming pool complex, “to make way for a more in-depth intervention, which may have to involve replacing the components of the hot water system”.
According to the municipality, the closure of the entire pool complex is because the procedures necessary to eradicate the bacteria have not yet had the desired effect.
With regard to the Municipal Stadium, “the results of the last counter-analysis carried out are awaited, which will dictate, if negative, the reopening of the changing rooms”.
Given the signs of an outbreak of ‘legionella’, the immediate temporary closure of the changing rooms of the two facilities was determined, to carry out the necessary procedures for its eradication, “namely through thermal and chemical shocks aimed at controlling the spread”, according to the statement.
“Despite the greater investment in financial and human resources and the maximum attention paid to this issue, the number of suspected occurrences and development of ‘legionella’ cultures in municipal equipment has increased”, says the municipality.
Despite the constraints that these closures cause to users, the municipality considers it “fundamental to eradicate the bacteria by all necessary means, to guarantee safe access for all residents”.
Man Arrested for domestic violence in possession of weapons and ammunition
A 28-year-old man was arrested in the Algarve for domestic violence against his ex-partner, with weapons and ammunition seized from him, GNR announced on Saturday, the 4th .
The arrest took place in the municipality of Faro , with the military finding that the man was attacking and threatening the 27-year-old victim with verbal abuse.
During the execution of a home search warrant, 825 cartridges, 70 ammunition and two shotguns, a pistol, 64 doses of hashish and four doses of cannabis were seized, the Guard said in a statement.
The detainee was presented to the Judicial Court of Faro, on Friday, where preventive detention was ordered, until remote control means were placed.
Preventive arrest for suspect of trying to kill companion in Olhão
The Court of Faro ordered the preventive detention of a man suspected of trying to kill his partner, in Olhão, after she refused to have sexual relations, the Faro District Attorney’s Office reported today. “The Public Ministry requested the preventive detention of the detainee, which was accepted by the Criminal Investigation Judge”, said in a statement the institution responsible for carrying out criminal proceedings in Faro.
The suspect, aged 29, was indicted for the crime of attempted and aggravated homicide, after having tried to stab his partner, aged 23, on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, the note reads.
The crime occurred in a room that they both live in in a residence in Olhão, when the detainee “wanted to have sexual relations with his partner and when she refused, he started drinking alcoholic beverages”.
According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office , the suspect, “armed with a knife, wanted to force her to have sex again”, and “in view of her partner’s new refusal, the detainee stabbed her several times in the legs, abdomen and back of the victim, putting her life in danger.”
The man was prevented from continuing by a third person who came to the room, causing him to flee, adds the Public Ministry.
According to a statement from the Judiciary Police (PJ) released on Thursday, the suspect ended up handing himself in hours later to the Public Security Police.
“The aggression was perpetrated in the presence of a child who was staying in the room with the victim, his mother,” specified the PJ.
The victim was examined and treated at the Centro Hospitalar do Algarve and the investigation of this case is in charge of the Southern directorate of the Judiciary Police.
Mother Arrested for Kidnap of Her Own Child
The mother took her daughter from Faro Hospital on Thursday, October 26 during a visit and was tracked down by authorities to a house in Faro and arrested in the early hours of Tuesday, October 31, along with a man who helped her.
After being heard by a judge, the mother was issued a restraining measure preventing her from “approaching the hospital or any other institution where the baby is located.” Meanwhile, the 45-year-old man was placed on the ‘termo de identidade e residência’ scheme, under which he is obliged to report to authorities whenever necessary.
While the baby girl was kidnapped from Faro’s public hospital, she was born in a private hospital, which Faro PJ police boss Fernando Jordão said may have been part of the mother’s plan to keep the child and circumvent the protective measures issued by Portugal’s Family and Minors Court.
Jordão also revealed that the woman, who is being monitored by the Commission for the Protection of Children and Youths, has another child who is institutionalised. Her newborn daughter, who is one month old, returned to Faro Hospital and remains under its care until a decision is made about her future, as she is subject to provisional protective measures by the Family Court.
According to a statement from the Algarve University Hospital Centre (CHUA) sent to Lusa, the baby was in the hospital as part of provisional protective measures for children and youth at risk, “but without a clinical reason and awaiting a court decision on permanent placement.”
Former Algarve mayor, charged in long-running corruption investigation
The Public Prosecutor’s Office has issued charges for various crimes – including corruption – for the former mayor of Vila Real de Santo António, Conceição Cabrita, construction and property entrepreneurs, a municipal official and a former MP.
The accusation was made as part of the investigation known as Operation Triangle, the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) has revealed in a statement from the Évora Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DIAP) – pointing out that among the 12 defendants there are “11 natural persons and one legal person”. The defendants include “a former mayor of Vila Real de Santo António, businessmen in the construction and property sectors, a municipal official and a former member of parliament,” the same source told Lusa.
As the source from the Public Prosecutor’s Office explains, the investigation covered the former mayor’s activities between 2019 and 2021 (when she resigned following her arrest), and was triggered by a “process of selling municipal land for the construction of a large-scale property project in Monte Gordo, in municipal public procurement procedures (in which the Vila Real de Santo António City Council was the contracting authority) and in the licensing of a private construction project“.
According to Évora DIAP, the case involves “several offences of passive and active corruption of a political office holder, abuse of power of a political office holder, malfeasance of a political office holder and document forgery“. The same source said that the “municipal political decision-maker” acted “in the exercise and abuse of her public functions and powers” and “intervened in order to achieve advantages for herself and third parties, over time, in various matters within the competence of the municipality and in its geographical area”.
“In the final order, the Public Prosecutor’s Office makes a request for the loss of advantages against several defendants, and a financial and asset investigation is pending in order to possibly make a request for extended loss, with the intervention of the Asset Recovery Office,” the statement continues.
Évora’s DIAP indicated that “closure orders were also issued in relation to related matters”.
The MP recalls that the investigation was conducted by the Évora DIAP and the Polícia Judiciária (PJ) and led to “search and seizure operations in the Algarve, Lisbon, Leiria and Santarém”.
The same source said that these endeavours made it possible to carry out “computer searches and seizures”, dozens of witnesses were interviewed and telephone and similar communications were intercepted, as well as follow-ups with image collection.
Former Vila Real de Santo António mayor Conceição Cabrita was arrested on 13 April 2021 by the PJ on suspicion of irregularities in a property deal in Monte Gordo, and on the same date the municipality was raided.
Conceição Cabrita was elected by the PSD in 2017 to preside over the Algarve municipality, after having been a councillor and vice-president under the previous president, Luís Gomes, and had announced that she would not run again for the position in the elections scheduled for that year.
The day after the police raid, Socialist MP António Gameiro confirmed that the Judicial Police had searched his home and office as part of the case.
On 16 April, Conceição Cabrita, who had announced that she was resigning from her position on the municipal council, and three other defendants were released from the Évora court, with a ban on contacts between them and with António Gameiro. ECO online writing about the various charges suggests that prosecutors believe Conceição Cabrita and António Gameiro received €100,000 and €300,000 respectively over the Monte Gordo property deal.
Until Next week, Stay Safe.