Antonio Paulo – 02/05/2024 – 9:46
Consulting, in the municipal library, information about the inauguration of the Horta d’Alva neighborhood (27/04/1949), in the edition of Reconquista on May 1st of that year, 75 years ago yesterday, I came across some curious information about dams.
Consulting, in the municipal library, information about the inauguration of the Horta d’Alva neighborhood (27/04/1949), in the edition of Reconquista on May 1st of that year, 75 years ago yesterday, I came across some curious information about dams, as documents the image; Essentially, Pracana was under construction and Alvito was under construction, with a 70 meter high wall. Subsequently, other proposals for location and height appeared, so as not to submerge villages upstream (Casal da Ribeira, Casalinho, Cerejeira, for example).
Although here I refer to the newspaper report, as a sickle, here I invoke the testimony of Mr. Manuel Barateiro (Foz do Cobrão) who gave me precious information that I am grateful for, surprising me to say that, in his 81 years, he was still his single mother and there was already talk about the dam! How long ago, therefore, going back to what this hypothesis would have been to a date long before the news in the newspaper 75 years ago.
Nothing was done, without prejudice to promises made during electoral campaign periods and, perhaps, the useless spending of public money on studies, projects, prospecting, without there being any work in sight or, at least, its beginning (Foz Côa began with cofferdams and then stopped with rock engravings).
I- In my humble opinion, it has not been built, nor will it ever be built, for a series of reasons:
1- Lack of political will, whether in the Estado Novo governments (Salazar and Marcello Caetano), or in those of the post-25th of April, whose 50th anniversary was celebrated last week.
1.1- Lack of political will, other than financial availability because, in this period of time, it was possible to complete a series of notable hydro-electric and irrigation projects, namely the entry into service of Castelo do Bode (1951), Cabril (54) , the Cávado/Rabagão developments, on the rivers Lima, Douro, Mondego (Aguieira, 81) and the Guadiana, with the Alqueva (closing of the floodgates in 2002).
1.2- As well as, in the field of various public works, construction or improvements to the road and railway network, ports and airports, bridges, including new ones on the Tagus and Douro and what is proposed there, the TGV, I don’t know, but There was and is money, it seems, with or without a balance deficit and, since we joined the European community/union, with the funds spigot flowing, as will be seen below.
2- Reasons of an ecological/environmental nature, due to the impact that any human intervention causes on the surrounding nature. Here I adduce the opinion of my friend José, assuring, with some lightness, that the dam would not be built because the blackbird (cinclus cinclus) nested at the gates of Almourão. Certainly, the protesting voices are based on serious reasons for preserving biological diversity (fauna and flora), including the habitats of the griffon vulture, black stork, eagle owl, Bonelli’s eagle, otter, etc.
3- Competition from other alternative energies, the focus on wind (wind turbines) and the sun (photovoltaic panels), supported by environmental arguments but also by the strong economic and financial interests of companies in the sector, Spanish included (the price of liberalism and globalization).
4- Finally, there are those who believe that new investments in dams are not justified, given that rainwater is scarce and will become less and less, due to climate change in the medium term.
II – Here I assume a position of visceral pessimism that, perhaps, very few, a restricted family and two friends, brothers at heart, will understand.
It weighs me down that Providence has not enlightened me with the faith that moves mountains (assuming that, for this purpose, “those in a hurry prefer dynamite”) and that, because of this disillusionment that runs through my blood, I understand that, the It has to go wrong because it will go worse, respecting however the optimists who, in their youthful enthusiasm, want to contest me.
Returning to the topic, in a broader context of the issue in question and, perhaps, without purpose, I would dare to put for your consideration:
1- Due to some historical-geographical fatalism that condemned us to a destiny from which we cannot escape, a gap was dug between the coast and the interior, which comes from far away; worse, as there is money as there is, the asymmetries widen, leaving the lion’s share for some and the crumbs, if there are any left, for the interior (Beiras); they are institutes, programs, projects, funds, foundations, PRR, millions that do not translate into serious productive investment in the various aspects of the economy and in the settlement of people, with “public voice and fame” that some of these resources disappear in corruption and illicit procedures (fictitious companies, false invoicing and undue favoritism, for example).
As an example of the magnitude of European funds, Nuno Palma says in The causes of Portuguese delay that, according to data from the Bank of Portugal, since accession until 2023, we have already received 133 billion euros, although we have to contribute around one third, an additional 22 billion PRR by 2026 and, by 2030, an additional 57 billion are planned; for a small and peripheral country in the European context and, perhaps, for this very reason, it is received with this generosity, failing, according to the author, the primary objective, that of convergence with a more developed Europe.
2- Progressive geo-climatic desertification is also true from a demographic point of view; Gone are the times when our villages were full of people and life. This paradigm has been lost today, with the aging of the resident population (the percentage weight of old-age pensioners in the national context is higher in Castelo Branco, Guarda and Portalegre, in the order of a fifth or more, CM, 04/23/20024); That is why, today, we need nursing homes and the expansion of cemeteries more than daycare centers and “primary” schools; people, legitimately, look abroad for better living conditions (job, salary, housing, health, education) and, therefore, leave, whether inside or outside.
2.1- Progress and people, reciprocally cause and effect, are entangled, negatively, in an irreversible vicious circle; We lack the agents and the dynamic engine of change.
3- The ideal of egalitarianism between regions is a utopia or, as George Orwell would say, “we are all equal, but some are more equal than others.”
I think that with the exception of Alqueva, the large public investment already applied and the European funds that will come, have served and will cover, above all, the coast; for example, the TGV initially planned on the Poceirão – Caia line, through the interior of Spain, on the way to France; because, now, it will be from Porto to Lisbon and from Porto to Vigo, as I say? It seems that there are those who think and want to reverse this configuration; and why not go through Beiras? Again and again, the heavy bill of interiority haunts us?!
4- Returning to the Alvito dam, where the obstacles and resistance mentioned above seem to outweigh the benefits and potential (energy production, irrigation (?) downstream, water sports, water reserves for urban supply, hotels and tourism in general), in a vaguely philosophical sense, it is a future; that is, that, in the future, it would come to fruition, if a set of factors and conditions came together but which, we know, will never come to fruition.
5- Conclusion: although I support its construction, I don’t see that it will ever become so. The idea, many decades old, was condemned to the depths of hell and, therefore, the promised dam, through which “a river of milk and honey” would flow, is nothing more than a mirage. I will more easily descend, along the rocky path, to the well where, legend has it and the people believe, lies, at the bottom, an ox cart full of shining gold and, there, half demented, exorcising ghosts, this drama of not seeing will end. the dam made. Finally…at peace!
6 – To anyone who bothered to read this argument, if, perhaps, it is built, from the top of the wall exemplifies the memory of the non-believer who, falling into wrong reflection, took the liberty of bothering you with some nonsense.
