PAICV accuses government of abandoning Brava island

The parliamentary leader of the African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV), Clóvis Silva, speaking on the island of Flores, said that "Brava feels abandoned by the government" and pointed the finger at the crisis in transportation, health and even bottled water supply.

On decentralized days in the Fogo-Brava region, the MPs from the PAICV Parliamentary Group began yesterday on the island of Brava, where they were able to confirm the difficulties that have been strangling local commerce, affecting the quality of life of the population.

Transport at the center of concerns

Clóvis Silva points to transport as the island's main problem, with negative impacts on the entire local economic structure and stresses that recent changes to CV Interilhas' operating model, rather than overcoming the constraints, have instead generated a significant additional cost for traders.

"Trade is strangled. Traders are no longer able to send their trucks to Santiago in the usual way, because the company is now also involved in cargo transportation. This has made the process unaffordably expensive, limiting the supply of essential goods, including bottled water and basic necessities," said the PAICV parliamentary leader.

For Clóvis Silva it is necessary to make changes to the operation of the maritime route, as well as to the model for providing the cabotage service. According to him, this is the only way to overcome the current situation and solve the problems.

The health scenario is not encouraging either.

With regard to the health sector, the scenario is also not encouraging, with the island having only six active nurses, working exhausting shifts that only compromise the capacity to respond to users.

"There are times when we can't respond to requests. The professionals are overloaded, they work more than 12 hours and it's not possible to complete adequate scales," said the PAICV parliamentary leader, advocating greater local autonomy for hiring human resources and immediate reinforcement of the health team.

Chamber is still waiting for the money promised by the government

Clóvis Silva also denounced the fact that, unlike the money promised by the government to deal with the damage caused by the fire at the Shopping Center, the City Council is still waiting for the 6.5 million escudos approved by the Council of Ministers for the traders who lost all their goods.

Difficulties, also in fishing and water supply

Also according to the MP for the Brava constituency, the difficulties extend to fishing, with professionals in the sector complaining about the lack of incentives and support from the government to boost an area of activity that has the potential to be the engine of the local economy.

The problems also extend to the water supply, which is considered critical and, what's more, aggravated by the reduction in the water table, especially in Fajã d'Água. And the desalination plant, funded by Luxembourgish cooperation, instead of dealing with the problem, has structural flaws that prevent an effective service.

The problems also extend to water supply, which is considered critical and, what's more, aggravated by the reduction in the water table, especially in Fajã d'Água.

"It was only after [the work] was finished that the water was found to contain too much manganese. The analysis should have been done beforehand. The project needs to be rethought," he lamented.

For Clóvis Silva, the general diagnosis of Ilha Brava is irrefutable and very worrying: "There is a clear feeling of abandonment. There is a lack of institutional presence. The population says they don't feel supported by this government."

Photo: GP/PAICV