The initiative, which entered Parliament on Thursday, asks the Government to “reinforce Navy support on guarded beaches and increase surveillance on unattended beaches, whether by military personnel or the Maritime Police, or through UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) “, such as drones.
“The military personnel, or the Maritime Police itself, must also be at the service to create an increase in the surveillance of unattended beaches. We even propose the use of drones, which the Navy already has, but which can eventually reinforce through a rental”, pointed out deputy João Gonçalves Pereira.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, batherers are advised to take measures, such as maintaining a safe distance on the beach and at sea, so CDS-PP is concerned that unsupervised beaches may be more popular this year and the risks that may arise.
“The conditions, the new rules that are imposed for the capacity on the guarded beaches, which require a distance and necessarily reduce the number of people on the beach, forces people to try to find other solutions“, deputy João Gonçalves Pereira said in statements to the Lusa agency.
“And the other solutions necessarily go through unsupervised beaches”, he noted.
Pointing out that “the CDS is very concerned about assisting bathers this year”, the centrist exemplified that “between Sines and Troia there are 75 kilometers of beach and only three kilometers are watched“.
“The unsupervised beaches do not have the same assistance (for bathers) and we have already started to have very worrying numbers”, warned the deputy, indicating that “until the end of may there were 46 drowning deaths, 64% more than the same period“.
Additional support requests
In this draft resolution, centrist deputies also recommend that the Executive led by the socialist António Costa create “exceptional support so that the concessionaires of the supervised beaches can face the reduction in activity and adapt to all safety obligations “and also” social and fiscal incentives for those who work seasonally as lifeguards“.
“The beach dealer this year will have, not only a limitation that stems from the rules of the restaurants and bars themselves, but will have these same restrictions at their dealership, but it will also have an added cost in view of the safety obligations, of the products that will having to use, individual protection inside restaurants “, justified Gonçalves Pereira.
The CDS asks that “lifeguards be provided with the necessary personal protective equipment” – such as a mask, goggles, gown or apron, cap, gloves and disinfectant – and that “new rescue equipment” be approved.
In this resolution, which aims to “contribute to this discussion”, the parliamentary group of Christian Democrats further calls for “awareness campaigns on the risk of drowning” to be promoted, estimating that this summer lifeguards will not be “sufficient to respond to the needs of bathers’ support “.
The text also defends that “it is necessary to make changes to the legislation in force”, and indicates that the CDS is already “working” in this area.
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