Brava: Edil asks for “immediate and quick” intervention by the Government to put an end to the situation of trips to the island

The mayor of Brava, Francisco Tavares, today called on the Government for “immediate and rapid intervention” to put an end to the situation of connecting trips to and from the island.

Francisco Tavares reacted, in statements to the press, to the situation that Brava has been experiencing in recent days with regard to connecting trips to the islands of Fogo and Santiago, where he considers that the scale “does not match the provision of public services with regard to transport.

The mayor considered himself "worn out" with this situation, stressing that it has been dragging on for the last six months to date, where the island already has around eight to ten different programs in this period, thus eliminating any type of predictability for who wants to do business or visit Brava.

“The situation is catastrophic, because at this moment, this week, we now have only three weekly trips where one is carried out on Monday and another four days later, that is, on Friday and another on Saturday”, he indicated. the aedile.

According to the same source, anyone who wants to visit Brava during a working week is obliged to take a whole week off, as he has to enter the island on Monday and can only return on Friday, which for him is “totally unthinkable” for what can be called a public transport service.

“This clearly shows that CV InterIlhas is a company that is no longer serving the population and economy of Brave, and therefore, the Government must take other measures”, demanded the mayor, adding that the “even more serious thing” is that these three trips per week are few and the schedule that will run from the 15th to the 29th of January states that there will only be two trips per week.

In this sense, Francisco Tavares said "disgusted" that "solutions have to be found because that way it cannot continue" suggesting that if CV InterIlhas is unable to comply with what the concession is that it should look for another company, but that improves the situation of connecting trips to and from Brava.

Well, he considered that with this calendar in the middle of the 21st century, year 2023, with two weekly trips, we are going back to perhaps a period before the Independence of Cape Verde, noting that since 1987 he started to travel to Brava constantly not I had seen a schedule with two trips to the island alone.

The mayor recognized that there were times when there were no boats due to damage, but “a schedule of just two weekly trips is clearly not a public passenger transport service to and from Brava” and this schedule harms Brava throughout its island development process.

“What does a mayor say to the population in relation to this, or to the economic operators on the island who have already made significant investments, but due to an external factor everything is falling apart”, he questioned, reinforcing that even the The Government itself, with other ministries, namely Tourism, Environment, Health, among others, have made large investments in the island directly or via the Municipality of Brava, but which end up coming to nothing if the island continues in this situation.

“Unfortunately, it is not within the competence of the city council, but the president, at that moment, has to be and stands beside the population and the island, and beside the superior interests of that island, which has every right to develop, as well as the other islands”, he emphasized.

Francisco Tavares underlined that this “zigzag” cannot continue because then the island will never develop again and the population will not feel that they are being treated with equal dignity as the other islands.

“There has to be a definitive solution and less than four weekly trips to the island are few, and four trips, but that the island does not have more than two days without connections because it is unsatisfactory and revolting”, he concluded, requesting an immediate intervention by the Government and the Ministry of the Sea.