The order of this courtwhich the agency Lusahad access today, is dated Monday and refers to the precautionary measure presented by League for Nature Protection (LPN), whose defendant (entity accused of a judicial process) is Portuguese Environment Agency(APA) and a counter-interested party (entity with interests contrary to those of the author of a legal case) the Alto Alentejo Intermunicipal Community (CIMAA), which manages the dam project.
A precautionary measure is a provisional judicial measure that aims to ensure the effectiveness of a right threatened by a serious injury that is difficult to repair.
In the court document, it is mentioned that a TOUGH searched “challenge and request the removal of the construction embargo notice”, that is, that the same embargo on the project be removed from the records.
To justify its request, the intermunicipal community claimed that in the construction embargo notice “there are only generic discretions about the object of the undertaking” construction of the Pisão Dam.
However, the TAFCB, in its order this Monday, considered that, given the facts alleged by the parties, it was decided that “non-lifting of the suspensive effect” of the precautionary measure, therefore keeping the works embargoed.
This is because, according to the court, “this decision is one that, in a judgment of proportionality and fair balance, objectively entails a lower risk of losses”.
“A contract can always be renegotiated, budgetary targets can always be revised”, added the TAFCB, countering that “the The same doesn’t happen” in the environmental domain, whose damages are “more sensitive”since “the harmful effects of human interventions are prolonged over time and, often, are not even recoverable”, it can be said.
For TAFCB, “damage to environmental assets legally protected areas that are expected with the lifting of the provisional decree and subsequent progress of the project [afiguram-se] comparatively more weighty and intense than the financial losses that the Portuguese State will have to bear given the foreseeable constraints in the execution of budgetary commitments and contracts signed with third parties”.
The work of the Crato Multi-Purpose Hydraulic Development Project (EAHFMC), a project also known as the Pisão Dam, have since been discontinued.
Contacted today by Lusa to react to the court order, CIMAA source sent a possible position taking to Thursday, day on which the intermunicipal community goes to elections to choose its new presidency.
CIMAA has elections scheduled for Thursday, at 10 am.
On November 4th, in parliament, the Minister of the Environment, Maria da Graça Carvalho, said he had given instructions to the APA to “respond with full force” to the precautionary measure which stopped the construction of the dam.
The work, considered strategic for the water resilience of the Portalegre district, will be financed through the Sustainable 2030 program, using funds from the Cohesion Fund, after approval of the transfer by the European Commission.
With an investment of more than 220 million euros, the project will occupy an area of 10 thousand hectares and will involve the submersion of the village of Pisão.
The dam aims to guarantee public water supply, create new irrigation areas and promote the production of renewable energy.