Interior Minister José Luís Carneiro admitted on Tuesday that the drought situation the country is experiencing is “very worrying”.
“The month of February was the warmest on record and the month of April had record-breaking days. At the same time, there has been less rainfall and severe levels of drought have manifested in several parts of the country. We are trying to sensitize institutions and city councils to have fire protection plans made,” said the official on the sidelines of a meeting at the headquarters of the Portuguese Institute for the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA).
“The situation should be of concern to the entire national community. We have had several spikes in maximum temperature and fire risk,” he added.
The minister understands the “difficulties in finding workers to carry out the cleaning work” on the part of citizens and added that the GNR will notify those who have not carried out these works by the April 30 deadline .
José Luís Carneiro declined to comment on the case involving fellow government member João Galamba, but appealed “seriousness” and recalled that an investigation is ongoing.
Environment Minister Duarte Cordeiro stressed that “some parts of the country that do not have the capacity to supply will have to take more emergency measures” and that “several parts of the country with more general water stress” have been identified, and there are plans were drawn up to make the territory “more resilient”.
“We need to adapt the area to climate change, but we don’t want areas with a low population density to remain without activity. We want to create a culture of risk,” he added.
Source: DN
