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I was very pleased to accept the Honourable Mayor’s invitation to visit Esposende and preside at the inaugural act of the requalification work undertaken on the seafront of S. Bartolomeu do Mar.

This is an opportunity to raise awareness to a good example of an urban refurbishment in our coastline and to prove that, with dialogue and good sense, circumstances that seem overly complex can be overcome.

It was possible here, with a total investment of approximately three million euros, 70% financed by the QREN Operational Land Appreciation Programme, and 30% co-financed by the Portuguese State and by the Esposende Municipality, to carry out, with peace and order, the demolition of 27 buildings.

It is doubtless that this undertaking carried a sentimental cost for those who had their homes here, even if these had not been used for some length of time. It is thus important to emphasize the high sense of responsibility shown by the owners in their negotiations with the County Council.

We must all take into account the extreme meteorological events and the increase in the sea level of our coastline.

This impact is not a hypothetically low probability. It is real, measurable in dozens of metres of cliffs swallowed by the sea throughout the last decades, here in S. Bartolomeu do Mar, such as in the Algarve and in so many areas of our coastline.

In spite of the great diversity in our country’s geological composition, we have found, from Viana do Castelo in the North, to Vila Real de Santo António, in the Southeast, through Aveiro or Peniche, Figueira da Foz or the Alentejo Coast, a great many number of vulnerable locations, cliffs subject to heavy erosion, sand dunes in danger of disappearance and inhabited areas exposed to the advancing reach of the sea.

Events such as the storms that, in the latter winters, violently ravaged our coast, damaging public and private equipment and infrastructure, are becoming more frequent and intense.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Erosion has notoriously changed many of the landscapes we have known all our lives. But it also endangers housing and means of communication, requiring measures that are frequently very difficult to implement.

It is fundamental that the call on the adoption of preventive and defensive measures does not continue being considered as overrated excesses of environmentalists and meteorological phenomena researchers.

It is a task for which all are responsible, from the Government to the local authorities of the whole extent of the Portuguese littoral, including the Regional Development Coordinating Committees and the bodies responsible for the Environment.

And it is also an urgent task, insofar as it will take time to bear results. It is imperative that local area risk charts are laid out and that these are included in the Municipal Master Plans of the County and City Councils of the littoral areas.

This procedure should anyway be taken as a caution not just for the foreseeable reality of the next decade, but the reality of the century or, at least, of the next 50 years. It is a duty we must assume towards the coming generations.

This is land planning that will imply the adoption of measures which, although inevitable, may be unpopular, and must thus be accompanied by a patient, clear and objective pedagogy.

Local authorities must consider the eligibility, within the framework of Portugal 2020, of such measures to conform the Portuguese coastal areas to the extreme meteorological phenomena and to climate change.

The actions to protect our coast will surely comprise demolitions, as was the case here in S. Bartolomeu do Mar, as well as changes in people’s habits, in order to achieve a territorial re-planning capable of avoiding pressure on sensitive zones and to prevent undesirable consequences.

Minister,
Honourable Mayor,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

The dispersal of building in our country and the reduced weight that, until now, has been assumed by urban refurbishment, have resulted today not just in a much greater number of residential units than those required for our population but, above all, in empty and abandoned historical centres, some of which have been frequently taken out of context.

An improved planning of our territory, with renewed urban centres where life can once again exist, must be a priority of the public decision takers.

The high quality research that exists today in Portugal’s universities, both in geomorphological and in urban terms, must be placed at the service of the bodies whose responsibility is to take planning decisions.

I end by congratulating the Esposende County Council for the intervention carried out here, for the example it represents to our country’s local authorities and hoping that, on 24 August next, the traditional pilgrimage and holy immersion in the sea at S. Bartolomeu do Mar is once again fulfilled.

Thank you very much.