The Liberal Initiative delivered on Monday a request for an urgent hearing in parliament to the secretary general of the National Water Council in order to clarify their recent statements on the use of water.
In a request addressed to the president of the Parliamentary Commission for Agriculture and Fisheries, the socialist Pedro do Carmo, the IL deputies recall the statements of Joaquim Poças Martins, in an interview with the Lusa agency, on September 24, when he stated that “ free water” and the subsidies given to farmers “are perverse” and that “a paradigm shift” is needed in Portuguese agriculture.
According to the former Secretary of State for the Environment in the last government of Cavaco Silva, Irrigation in Portugal “does not do it in moderation” farmersbecause they do not do accounts: “In Portugal, water is practically not paid [para a Agricultura] and water is not measured and for what is not measured or paid for, it is not saved”, he said.
The Liberal Initiative bench highlights that the National Water Council “is an independent consultative body of the Portuguese Government, in the field of planning and sustainable management of water.”
“In this sense, since the sustainable use of water is a concern and a priority on the national and European political agenda, especially in contexts of extreme drought such as the one we are experiencing, the main political actors are required to deal responsibly and seriously with this issue“, they underline.
In this context, IL asks for an “urgent” hearing of Joaquim Poças Martins “to clarify whether his statements effectively correspond to the understanding of this independent body of government consultation”.
The Confederação dos Agricultores de Portugal (CAP) has already described as “false” and “slanderous” the statements of the general secretary of the National Water Council on the use of this resource by agriculture, and announced that it will present a “statement of protest ”.
Source: Observadora
