Eduardo Leite denies loosening environmental policies: ‘It’s unfair to blame local legislation’ | Rio Grande do Sul

Eduardo Leite denies loosening environmental policies: ‘It’s unfair to blame local legislation’

The governor of Rio Grande do Sul, Eduardo Leite (PSDB), spoke this Thursday (9) about criticism that the State government has suffered due to the prevention of tragedies and changes in environmental legislation. In an interview with Em Ponto, from GloboNewshe refuted statements that the government made changes to 500 articles of environmental legislation and argued that these changes created, for example, payment for environmental services that allows payments to be made to people who protect the environment.

“We are planning, based on these changes we have made, to make payments, reward and help those who preserve. We desire and want preservation, but we also need to make people mobilize for preservation based on economic results in favor of of preservation,” he said.

According to the governor, the changes did not ease the fight against environmental crimes.

“There has been no relaxation of legislation, there is no relaxation in relation to environmental care in Rio Grande do Sul, on the contrary, there is exactly a concern for us to preserve and achieve the best conciliation between the necessary preservation and the economic development of the State” , says Leite.

Regarding the current flood, Eduardo Leite says he does not believe it is the fault of city halls and the government of Rio Grande do Sul and cites the 1941 flood, which was historic and was not repeated for many years.

“It is unfair to want to charge Rio Grande do Sul for any local legislative issue… I am not going to criticize the experts, but I want them to carry out a deeper analysis than simply wanting to charge the account, wanting to look for culprits at this moment and to be able to have a effective collaboration to which we will always be open, because it is something that we want, to be able to always improve, we will be open to those critics who want to help build and not just point blame at one or the other”, he added.

Helicopters rescue stranded residents in Eldorado do Sul (RS)

The governor also spoke about the fiscal situation of Rio Grande do Sul and the aid package approved by Congress when recognizing a state of calamity in the region. For Leite, the lack of investment in complex projects came as a result of other priorities defined by the local government itself.

“The State was not being able to fulfill its role in the basic day-to-day lives of the population, let alone being able to work, invest in projects that require a great effort of resources, such as those involving the resilience of our cities in relation to the climate”, he said.

The governor says that help from the federal government and Congress is essential so that Rio Grande do Sul can have fiscal capacity and not have problems in the future.

“If we continue to be compressed with our legs tied and our hands tied in the face of a fiscal rule that constrains us, that compresses our budget, we will possibly be here again talking about the lack of investment. Why didn’t they happen in the face of new disasters? We want to make these investments, we want to make strong investments for the resilience and defense capacity of our cities, but we have immense difficulties in doing so”, he added.

There are 232.1 thousand people away from home. Of this total, 67,542 are in shelters and 164,583 are homeless (people staying with family or friends).

RS has 425 of its 497 municipalities with some report of problems related to the storm, with 1.476 million people affected.