Lagoa’s wetland “is in imminent danger of being totally destroyed” – Left Bloc supports protest group

The Left Bloc’s national executive wants to safeguard natural wetland in Lagoa and to see an end to plans for yet another supermarket.

A Bloquista statement to the press is insistent that the natural area, from which the city derived its name, “is in imminent danger of being totally destroyed.”

The draft resolution has been presented to parliament to safeguard the Alagoas Branncas zone, a wetland of significant environmental and patrimonial interest located on the south side of Lagoa between the EN125 and the recently built Apolónia and Aldi supermarkets. Lagoa also has a Pingo Doce, an Intermarché and a Pão de Açúcar supermarket.

Sonae Group, owner of the Continente supermarket chain, has not confirmed the site is one of theirs but whichever business is planning this destruction of an important natural area, it can not remain hidden behind intermediaries for much longer.

Lagoa locals point to a derelict site alongside the EN125 that could be turned into a supermarket without concreting over yet more of the Algarve’s rapidly disappearing countryside.

The local mayor ducked the environmental issue when it was put to him by a feisty protest group, stating only that the site was granted permission ages ago and there’s nothing he can do about it. There is, it is just that he can’t be bothered or that the local rates income from a supermarket is too much of a temptation.

In the document submitted to the Assembly of the Republic, the Left Bloc MPs recommend the Government takes the necessary measures to safeguard this seasonal freshwater wetland, prevent its imminent destruction and to carry out a detailed study of the space with a view to having it classified as a protected natural space.