Brava: Residents of Santa Bárbara confront PR and city council team with the situation in which they live

The population of Santa Bárbara expressed its concerns to Jorge Carlos Fonseca and mayor Francisco Tavares, related to the bad agricultural year, lack of employment and improvement in access roads.

Arlete Alves, one of the residents of the locality, said that her biggest concern is the lack of jobs, that due to the bad agricultural year the situation has become more difficult every day, with families having to look for means of support, or even there are those who survive on pensions and support.

She was also concerned about the situation of the access roads to the locality, which at the moment are with “some weeding”, but also with the walls that are being demolished by the animals that roam freely in the area.

“The situation is complicated. As it didn’t rain, those who have their animals no longer put them in the stable, but leave them to graze freely and end up tearing down the walls, damaging the roads and even not letting the residents put any ornamental plants or vegetables” , said the resident, adding that they eat everything that appears in front of them.

Meanwhile, he recognized that the city council has placed some work fronts in the locality to rebuild the protection walls, repair the sidewalks and clean the road and the neighboring paths.

But, he added, “the population doesn't help”, as they don't understand that the animals should remain in the stable, as a way of keeping the area clean and being more eye-catching.

Especially because other residents also commented that the population in the area is decreasing, especially young people, due to emigration or even the search for better conditions and that it is an area that “nobody remembers it”.

Edite Lopes, is another resident who said she is the mother of nine children, some family members are sick, some are undergoing treatment, others are not, and she is not healthy.

And, with all the difficulties, he added that they survive on the social pension and in a house with few conditions, without the minimum sanitation conditions, that is, without a bathroom.

She also pointed out that another problem she faces is the question of transport, if she needs to go to the hospital there is no way to pay for the rental of a car, which leads her to resort to the island's police authorities.

Faced with these concerns, the mayor of Brava, Francisco Tavares, said that these situations were already known to him and that each year the municipality puts one or two groups to clean up the area, repair some road walls, but it is a job which has to be done repeatedly because the breeders let the animals loose, dirty the paths and damage the walls.

Hence, he said he admitted that “unfortunately” the council does not have the financial conditions to permanently carry out this work of cleaning and rebuilding the walls.

What they want is to work on raising people's awareness to confine the animals to a space to look for pasture and not let them loose, with the resulting negative consequences.

As for the issue of sanitation and construction of bathrooms, he added that Edite Lopes' family is already on the list to be contemplated with the construction of one, within the framework of the Environmental Rehabilitation and Accessibilities Program (PRAA).

MC/YY

Inforpress/End