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Lays Down Measures To Protect The Coastline

Original Language Title: Estabelece medidas de protecção da orla costeira

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DRAFT LAW NO. 133 /X

ESTABLISHES PROTECTION MEASURES OF THE COASTAL ORLA

EXHIBITION OF REASONS

Article 66º of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic statues, that " Everyone has

right to a human, sadio and ecologically balanced living environment and the

duty to defend it " , including among the fundamental tasks of the State

Portuguese the defence of nature and the environment, as well as the preservation of the

natural resources (article 9º CRP)

In that sense the Man has the " duty to protect and improve the environment for the

current generations and brooms " :

In many countries and notably in Portugal, until the end of the eighties,

it was associated with "coastal protection" exclusively for the construction of works of

defence (scouts and adherent works) to reduce the risks of exposure of the

fronts edified to the action of the waves and tides.

It did not exist a bet on the planning which has much wider goals

that the reduction of these risks.

The "Protection" option, in a global sense, for it to be environmentally sound and

economically affordable, should in the perspective that it defends, include the

"conservation", "rehabilitation" and "valorisation", contemplating actions of withdrawal

or accomodation in very specific zones.

The Decree-Law 302/90 of September 26 sets out principles whose observance

is to be contemplated by rules to be inserted into the instruments of

planning (Municipal Plans, Planning of Planning and Expansion

of the Ports, Plan of Planning of Classified Protected Areas) or of

rules to be established by regulatory decree.

They are published by various sources demonstrative data that on the tracks

Portuguese coastline checks for a widespread retreat from the "shoreline" to which

takes on very troubling proportions in some areas.

For your turn the Decree-Law No. 309/93 (Plans de Ordering da Orla Cosfolio)

in your article 12º resumes exactly the same principles of the cited Decree-Law

paragraph 302/90, relating to the occupation, use and processing of the land area of

protection of the coastal orla.

By virtue of aiming to maintain acessibilities to the port areas in

conditions of safety, annually are extracted millions of cubic metres of

sand from the sea and estuaries.

With few exceptions, the vast majority of the extracted volume was used for

civil construction, so it ceased to be circular off the coast. Although this

occurrence is not new, Fernando Veloso Gomes and Francisco Taveira Pinto in the

study under "Option Protection for the Portuguese West Coast", consider this

very serious situation because:

-Its consequences (of a cumulative nature) make themselves felt by the

aggravation of erosions on beaches and dunes. In the generality the beaches

find themselves very framed and even the sotamar of the scouts, the sand

accumulated is much smaller than it was in recent years.

-The solid flow of fluvial origin transported to the sea represents in the

topical a small fraction of what it meant there are two or three

decades ago, due to the construction of hydraulic profiteers and the

operation of the terminal areas of estuaries as large basins of

"decantation";

-It Is Anticipated that these cumulative effects associated with the reduction of the sources

aluviares and dredging extraction intensify in the coming years,

although its intensity is very much associated with the climates of agitation

annual that if they come to register

Thus, maintenance on average terms, from the current coast line through

artificial feeding operations of beaches and other engineering works

coastal, constitutes what is proposed to be the third level of a

protection strategy.

The adoption of a "preventive" but also "curative" policy is necessary in the face of

current severity of the problems.

So the present initiative aims to be a contribution to the protection of the orla

coastal conditioning the extraction of sands when carried out at 1km from the coast,

to a mandatory recharge.

This initiative also complements itself with the Party's Draft Law 24 /IX

Socialist, which creates the system of surveillance and control of the exercise of the activity of

dredging and extraction of inert.

On the constitutional and regimental terms applicable the Deputies below

signed present the following Draft Law:

Article 1º

Subject

This Act shall have the object of the protection of the coastline through a system

of artificial feeding of the beaches.

Article 2º.

Conditions of extraction of sands

1-A extraction of sands when carried out at 1km away from the coast line

has to be aimed at refills of sand on the beaches, for the purpose of protecting the

shoreline.

2-The Government in the framework of the protection policy of the coastal orla, may extend

on duly justified grounds and in function of the particularities of the

estuaries, the limits provided for in the paragraph. anterios.

Article 3º.

Artificial feeding of beaches

1. For the purposes of applying this Law shall be understood by

artificial feeding of beaches the allotment by means

artificial sandy materials in immersed sites or emersos

suitable for obtaining a given sea profile

favorable to energy dissipation of waves and bathing use,

simulating natural situations.

2. The origin of the sands for artificial feeding should be

found in the amounts that continue to be extracted

for the maintenance of the navigation channels.

Article 4º

Regulation

The Government shall make the regulation of this Law, within ninety days

from the date of its entry into force.

Article 5º

Entry into force

This diploma shall enter into force on the 1º day of the month following its publication.

Palace of S. Bento, July 6, 2005

The Deputies