After the winter storms, Portugal launches a €22,6 billion reconstruction plan

Three months after the series of devastating storms that hit Portugal this winter, its government unveiled on Tuesday, April 28, a 22,6 billion euro investment plan aimed at rebuilding damaged infrastructure and better preparing the Iberian country to face new severe weather.

With nearly a hundred measures to be implemented by 2034, this program represents "an investment in collective security", said Prime Minister Luis Montenegro.

"The overall amount of the plan is 22,6 billion euros, divided between public and private investments. Its financing is mainly national, but it also incorporates a share of European funds," he specified.

The first of the three components of this program concerns the reconstruction of the affected regions, where storms and floods caused damage estimated at 5,3 billion euros.

The second plan provides for a budget of 15 billion euros to better protect the country against the effects of natural disasters, including a reform of the emergency medical system, the strengthening of water and energy distribution networks, and the construction of four new dams.

The third component, amounting to 2,3 billion euros, focuses on measures to improve responses to this type of severe weather, with, for example, the creation of a "natural and seismic disaster fund allocated to a mandatory insurance system for homes and businesses," explained the head of the center-right government.

Between January 22 and February 15, Portugal was hit by seven successive storms, accompanied by winds reaching 130 km/h, intense rainfall, flooding and landslides.

These storms destroyed many homes and caused significant damage, particularly to water and energy supply infrastructure, as well as to public services such as hospitals and schools.

They have caused at least seven deaths, according to civil protection data, while some local media continue to report a higher toll, reaching nearly twenty direct and indirect victims.

The Iberian Peninsula is on the front line of climate change in Europe and is experiencing increasingly long heat waves and increasingly frequent and intense episodes of heavy rainfall.

In mid-April, Portugal submitted a request to activate the European Union Solidarity Fund, created to support member states facing major natural disasters or health emergencies.