The President of the Legislative Assembly of Madeira said today that he does not know if the region has been able to learn from “past mistakes.” The statement was made at an exhibition conference ‘The water flows, the stones take…” which served to mark the 15th anniversary of the 2010 flood, where 47 people lost their lives, 600 were made homeless, and a further 250 were injured. In total, the flood cost more than a billion euros in damage.
Reflecting on this, researcher João Baptista warned of persisting weaknesses, namely construction in risk areas, advocating “urgent interventions” to minimise risks. On a positive note, the university professor highlighted the additional security the solid load retention structures placed in major river inlets provide.
A second speaker, José Manuel Rodrigues said that he had been heeding the warnings of João Baptista long before the 2010 tragedy, and stressed that once again “it has been shown that we are no safer than we were in 2010. Of course, a lot of money was invested, but often the money invested is used to repair mistakes instead of correcting the mistakes we have made for decades.
Regarding João Baptista’s comments, he said, that it is necessary to learn from the mistakes of the past, lamenting:
“I don’t know if we have learned anything!”
José Manuel Rodrigues, therefore, defends proactive participation of political decision-makers, economic decision-makers, and citizens, throughout the year, not just on the anniversary of the tragedy. He further highlighted that there are civil protection infrastructures based next to river beds and that vital infrastructures for the city of Funchal lie next to our rivers, giving as an example “the Lazareto WWTP.
The President of the Legislative Assembly of Madeira pointed out as urgent the implementation of a “forest restoration plan,” recalling that there are community funds to address these environmental factors.
José Manuel Rodrigues praised the work and commitment of all civil protection professionals, health professionals, security forces, and volunteers who on the 20th of February 2010 and in the following weeks “became a chain of solidarity that managed to stop the flow of mud and helped rebuild our lives.”
The President of the Madeiran Parliament praised the initiative of Filipe Afonso, mentor of the collective exhibition entitled “The water flows, the stones take…” which focuses on the 2010 flood, and is part of his master’s degree in image design at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto. “It is an act of courage by someone who lost his mother in a tragedy, to go on and study the impacts of that tragedy. An impact that devastated Madiera traumatising a whole population.
The exhibition, held at the Casa da Luz Electricity Museum comprises photographs by eight Madeiran photographers: Duarte Gomes, Gregório Cunha, Hélder Santos, Joana Sousa, João Homem de Gouveia, Mário Pereira, Octávio Passos and Rui Silva. It also includes images provided by the Garrison Regiment No. 3 (RG3) and Filipe Afonso himself.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
Photo: JM
