Government of the Azores launched 22 interventions in streams amounting to 10.7 million Euros
The Regional Secretary for Agriculture and the Environment stressed on São Jorge Island the increase of public investment during this term in the prevention and safety of populations regarding the risks associated with water resources.
Luís Neto Viveiros spoke at the opening of the works for the reshaping of the stream bed and the reconstruction of culverts in Beira stream, municipality of Velas. The government official stressed that the launch of 22 contract works for interventions in streams represented a global investment of 10.7 million Euros.
Of the 22 works launched, 12 have already been completed and the remaining are under progress.
The Secretary for the Environment also stressed that this "particular attention" has resulted in increased budget allocations, adding that, compared to the 1.7 million Euros granted in 2012, this year's Plan has a financial allocation of six million Euros for activities related to intervention and maintenance of water lines.
Therefore, Neto Viveiros stressed that the Government of the Azores tripled budget appropriations for this purpose in an effort that "should not be spared" because the goal "is to protect people and property."
The reshaping work of the stream bed and the reconstruction of culverts in Ribeira da Beira, now opened, represented an investment over 250 thousand Euros.
This stream had been identified in the reports on the state of streams in the Azores (RERA) as posing a high hydrological risk due to its layout and the condition of various sections in the bed and margins, which may be conducive to the occurrence of floods in situations of heavy rainfall.
The interventions carried out included the redevelopment, reshaping, retention and clearance of the stream bed with the aim of mitigating any direct or indirect consequence of extreme natural risks associated with flooding.
In this context, the contract work, which had a completion period of six months, focused on two distinct areas of intervention and included the cleaning of the entire water line.
The hydrographic network of the Azores comprises 7,000 kilometres stretched over 700 hydrographic basins.