The Santa Cruz City Council admitted that a wastewater discharge occurred in the Atalaia area this Friday, lamenting that “these situations unfortunately occur throughout the island.” However, in a statement signed by the mayor, Élia Ascensão, stated that “what is not happening is a prompt, muscular reaction from the Regional Government, which [in the case of Santa Cruz] immediately orders a halt, but maintains complicit silence in the municipalities where it holds power.”
“It’s a shameful, muscular reaction, not only because it doesn’t occur when similar situations occur in other municipalities, but because it hides the true reason these discharges occur. And these discharges occur because they involve structures built by the Regional Government itself, most of which are undersized and designed without any planning,” the mayor accuses in a note sent to newsrooms.
“We know that we are approaching an election, and that the PSD and its Regional Government are wasting no time in using government resources—regional directorates, public agencies, institutes, and the like—as political weapons. Therefore, it’s important for the population to know that these infrastructures, which are collapsing throughout the region (as happened in Funchal just a few days ago), are part of the wonderful legacy we inherited from the PSD and its Regional Government,” she adds.
“They would have every right to order a stop to whatever it was, if they had the same attitude in similar situations. But that’s not what’s been happening,” adds Élia Ascensão, before concluding: “Therefore, let there be decency, since shame seems to be non-existent.”