The APROSOC has expressed strong convictions that “the recent deaths of two elderly individuals inside their home during the floods in the parish of Fernão Ferro, Seixal municipality, are primarily the responsibility of the Seixal municipal executive and the parish council of Fernão Ferro”.
The association accused both local authorities of “inertia and ineptitude” regarding their responsibilities in allowing the existence of the risky dwelling without geotechnical and hydrological assessment.
Among the municipal duties alleged to have been neglected are the prevention of collective risks within the municipality, continuous analysis of municipal vulnerabilities to risky situations, and the study and dissemination of appropriate measures for the protection of buildings and natural resources.
The association further criticized the municipal executive for failing in its roles of public awareness and information dissemination about preventive measures and self-protection conduct, as well as not providing guidance during severe accidents or disasters.
With the “passive connivance of the municipal executive,” according to APROSOC, the Fernão Ferro parish council also “neglected its duties” to cooperate with the Municipal Civil Protection Service in preventive actions and risk and vulnerability assessments in its area.
“This civil society organization believes these factors were, in our conviction, crucial in the deaths of these two citizens; therefore, in the civic defense of public interest, such gross omissions should face criminal proceedings, to prevent these practices from continuing in this and other municipalities“, the association stated.
APROSOC also commented that “civil protection volunteering in the Seixal municipality is disorganized, insufficient, ineffective, unproductive, misleading, and illusory for the population“.
An elderly couple, both over 80, died on Thursday in Pinhal de General, in the Fernão Ferro parish, after their house was flooded due to heavy rain overnight.
In a statement to the Lusa agency, the president of the Seixal Municipality noted that the house, built in an Areas of Illegal Urban Genesis (AUGI), was constructed “clandestinely, without any municipal license”, located near a water line, with ongoing efforts to build infrastructures and regularize water lines.
The AUGI of Pinhal do General, he explained, is the largest in the Seixal municipality and one of the largest in the country, with three thousand plots, and the area is marked on risk maps.
On Thursday, the Setúbal district was on red alert because of depression Claudia, which has affected mainland and Madeira, bringing intense rainfall, thunderstorms, and hail.
The heavy rains on that day also caused other incidents in various parts of the Seixal municipality, including fallen trees, floods in homes and public roads, and the closure of National Road 378.
