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Alonso Miguel asks everyone to commit to the “complex challenge” of implementing a new management paradigm in land use

Jan. 20, 2022

The Regional Secretary for the Environment and Climate Change, Alonso Miguel, accompanied by the Regional Director for Spatial Planning and Water Resources, Emanuel Barcelos, met today with the President of the Parish Council of Feteiras, following the floods that affected that parish of Ponta Delgada on the 30th of December.
The department of the Regional Government of the Azores responsible for the Environment informed the municipality of the preliminary conclusions of the technical report being prepared within the scope of the Territorial Planning and Water Resources Services.
According to Alonso Miguel, “the Government of the Azores will proceed with all measures that can minimize the impact of similar events that may occur during this winter” emphasizing, however, that “regarding the verified evidence, it is also necessary to carry out structural interventions that allow guarantee the reduction of the risk of occurrence of these situations in the future”.
For the Regional Secretary for the Environment and Climate Change, “it is necessary that spatial planning and the management of water resources is viewed in a transversal way, bringing together and seeking solutions that bring together different perspectives and domains, namely agriculture and forests, municipalities, institutions and individuals”.
He continued: “This is a complex challenge that requires everyone's commitment. There is a need for a new management paradigm in the use of land that allows its adequate permeability, avoiding surface runoff phenomena and increasing the recharge capacity of aquifers”.
For the official, “the events that have recently occurred, and increasingly frequent, are unmistakable signs of the need ”to look at the territory and natural resources in a more responsible way”.
“If we continue to eliminate our forest, if we continue to obstruct the beds of our streams, if we continue to eliminate walls and partitions from our lands, we are irrevocably contributing to making these phenomena even more unpredictable and difficult to combat, increasing risk of endangering people and property”, he added.
Alonso Miguel also underlines that the Regional Government “is aware of the challenges it faces in this matter, having defined as priorities the implementation of the flood alert system in risky hydrographic basins, investment in cleaning and maintenance of the hydrographic network, operations of requalification and the investment in the training of resources in order to allow more and better surveillance.
“This is a bet we have to win in the name of our future. We have to prepare and respond”, continued the Regional Secretary.
It is in this sense that, also, to face these phenomena resulting from climate change, the Government will create the Climate Emergency Fund, “in order to respond in a timely manner to all those who are affected by these events and who need help to recover. get back into their daily lives.”