Portugal Safety and Security Report Wednesday 1st May 2024
Good morning everyone. We start the day with some good news, that the 75 year old Dutch national who suffers from dementia has been found alive have gone missing in Albufeira on Monday. What is also good is the way that his family based in the Netherlands managed to mobilize support through Facebook with several thousand messages of support and volunteering to take part in efforts to try and locate him. This shows social media at its best – a story with a happy ending. We were in contact with the family providing advice as necessary.
Another item of good news is the excellent response to our Natural Hazard Prepared Survey, with the numbers of those of you who completed and submitted on-line questionnaires exceeding expectations. We are about to close the fact finding phase, so if you have yet to complete the survey please do so now. As we said we will analyse the results which will be published with a copy sent to the ANEPC.
As a resident of Portugal, we are exposed to the risk not only of wildfires, but also earthquakes, extreme temperatures, cyclones, tsunamis and other natural hazards. These can have disastrous effects, causing massive losses and damage. We are working together to minimize the impacts of these risks, and help build more resilient societies, so it is important that the local population is aware and involved in disaster risk management. The link to undertake this short survey is here.
https://forms.gle/aaZQCCkL9Xf53Dgo9
A reminder that land cleaning deadline was yesterday 30th April despite demands by the National Federation of Forest Owners Associations (FNAPF) to postpone this to the end of May or end of June, as the current deadline “is not feasible” due to weather conditions.” Although the deadline is now finished all efforts to clean land by those in rural areas (especially high risk areas) should continue. On the 1st of May the GNR start the monitoring phase, so don’t risk having to pay a fines! It is better to have made start rather than not starting at all.
Yesterday the president of the European Blue Flag Association supported the extension of the official bathing surveillance period, considering that ideally it should cover all weekends with good weather, in order to reduce the number of accidents. He said: “Ideally, if we had every weekend [with good weather], at least the bathing areas were monitored, we would certainly drastically reduce the number of accidents”, said José Archer, on the side lines of the presentation of beaches, marinas and boats with Blue Flag this year, a ceremony that took place in Oeiras, in the district of Lisbon.
The problem is the “difficulty with labour”, referring to the lack of lifeguards. In some regions of the country, it is very difficult, even during the bathing season, to have a supply of lifeguards qualified for this position”. The official also recalled that beaches with a blue flag “must have surveillance” and that the criteria nowadays “are very strict”, which allows in terms of results “to have practically zero fatal accidents throughout the bathing season”
Portugal prides itself in the number of beaches with Blue Flags but this cannot be at the cost of beach safety due to lack of lifeguards. The same argument is raised each year namely the lack of qualified lifeguards but there does not appear to be any improvement in the situation.
Our team at Safe Communities Portugal wish you a happy week ahead
News
Civil Protection owes firefighters more than half a million euros according to LBP
Lisbon, April 29, 2024 (Lusa) – The League of Portuguese Firefighters (LBP) warned today that Civil Protection owes more than half a million euros to fire brigades, a debt relating to the forest firefighting device that has been in existence for several years.
The president of the LBP, António Nunes, told Lusa that the League questioned the humanitarian associations of volunteer firefighters about the amount owed to the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC) under the Special Device for Combating Rural Fires (DECIR).
“At this point it is already 620 thousand euros”, said António Nunes, stressing that the debt is capable of “reaching one million euros”, since all fire brigades have not yet responded.
According to LBP, these debts under DECIR are mainly from 2022 and 2023, but there are also some that date back to 2019.
António Nunes explained that “these are extraordinary expenses that must be paid and that have to do with the expenses presented by the fire departments and that ANEPC did not pay”, being essentially related to damaged materials and vehicle repairs.
“The debts are very varied, but they are not current expenses”, he stated, stressing that the LBP is now alerting to this situation, as there are 15 days left until the first reinforcement of firefighting resources within the scope of DECIR.
“I think it is very bad that someone starts another fire season asking for additional effort from associations, fire departments and firefighters, without paying off expenses from previous years”, he highlighted.
The president of LBP also said he hopes that the new Government will provide more precise guidance to ANEPC “to fulfill its commitments”.
Work of the Leiria Region Sub-Regional Fire Management Commission was suspended
Leiria, April 30, 2024 (Lusa) – The work of the Sub-regional Commission for Integrated Rural Fire Management in the Leiria Region was suspended at the initiative of the intermunicipal community, which demands clarification of the funds to reinforce forest management actions in this territory.
“The work of the Sub-regional Committee for Rural Fire Management in the Leiria Region was suspended, by majority decision of its members and on the initiative of the 10 municipalities of the Intermunicipal Community of the Leiria Region (CIMRL)”, announced this entity.
According to CIMRL, the decision is justified by “the need to clarify the financial means to reinforce integrated forest management actions in the Leiria Region and by the conformity of the Danger Charter with municipal plans and rural fire risk”.
This commission, chaired by CIMRL, was installed in February 2022 and is made up of around 30 public and private entities with competences in the integrated management of rural fires.
In a press release sent to the Lusa agency, the intermunicipal community said that “the proposal to suspend the work of the sub-regional commission at a technical level was approved with two votes against”, from the representatives of the Agency for the Integrated Management of Rural Fires (AGIF) and the Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests, “entities responsible for coordinating and preparing the current Danger Charter (…) without any discussion with the territories”.
This decision by CIMRL “translates a position in defence of the forest and demands clarification on the sources of financing for a Sub-Regional Action Plan for the Leiria Region that imposes duties and obligations on municipalities”.
The technical level proposal coordinated by AGIF “points to the implementation of 51 strategic projects, representing a financing need of around 204 million euros by 2030, an amount that is unaffordable for the budgets of the municipalities in the Leiria Region”, maintained CIMRL.
In addition to suspending the commission’s work with immediate effect, it was also decided to request the revocation of the 2020-2030 Hazard Charter.
“Petty crimes” MAI agrees that Military Service can be an alternative.
The Minister of Internal Administration agreed today that military service could be an alternative for young people who commit “minor crimes”, as defended by the Minister of Defence.
In statements to journalists, at the end of the closing seminar of the Project “Improving prevention, assistance, protection and (re)integration systems for victims of sexual exploitation”, Margarida Blasco said that the Minister of Defence, Nuno Melo, “obviously that spoke on behalf of the entire Government”.
What we have to admit is that all solutions are the Government’s intention to implement them, adapting them to the current contexts which, as you know, are very demanding”, said the minister.
The minister’s statement comes after Nuno Melo proposed, at Universidade Europa, a PSD political training initiative, that military service could be an alternative for young people who commit petty crimes instead of being placed in institutions that, “in the main In most cases, they only function as a school of crime for life”, at the same time that he stated that there were no political conditions to re-impose compulsory military service.
Also present at the ceremony, which took place at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the president of the Bar Association said she was not analysing the matter, but made it clear that “compulsory military service makes no sense whatsoever”.
Even so, Fernanda de Almeida Pinheiro admitted that “it could be recommended (…) as a substitute penalty, instead of paying a pecuniary penalty, which if people do not always have, they choose to do public service”.
“And military service can be a public service that is provided, if necessary, when properly framed, because I don’t even know if we are properly qualified to receive this type of services”, defended the president.