Without an airport and now occasionally without telephone or Internet service, and with only two weekly boat links to the capital city, the island of Maio seems to be more isolated than ever. The shipping company Polar has failed to carry out several of its trips to the island, alleging that the sea’s rough conditions would not allow its boats to dock there. And, as if the fact that the island’s airport has been closed for runway repairs for the past several months weren’t enough, telephone and Internet services now fail from time to time, on occasions for as long as an entire day. “We can’t leave the island, we don’t get a lot of products, and if something serious happens, we may not even be able to phone. We’re extremely isolated,” says one Maio inhabitant.

Over the past two weeks, the ship Barlavento of shipping company Polar, which, according to its contract with the government, should travel three times a week to the island of Maio, only carried out its voyage between Praia and Porto Inglês on Maio on Monday and Saturday. The Thursday trip was “detoured” to Sal, which, according to some of Maio’s inhabitants, has resulted in a rupture in the stock of several basic items. “Normally, products come on Thursdays, but as the boat didn’t come on Thursday of this or last week, we haven’t received cargo for some 15 days,” one of the island’s inhabitants told A Semana.

Polar’s commander Luís Viúla explains that the company does not have a ship available to ply the Praia-Sal route, and that the Barlavento has, as such, been used for this purpose. “We have the Mosteiros here in Praia to go to Maio, but this Thursday it wasn’t possible because the sea was too rough to allow it to dock safely at Maio’s port,” he justifies.

Viúla guarantees that his company signed the contract with the government “in good faith,” but highlights that the contract stipulates that the trips be made only when ocean conditions so permit.

Telephones silent

After contacting a number of retail establishments on the island of Maio by phone, we learned that the main items that have been lacking are fruits and green vegetables. The owner of one of Porto Inglês’s shops explained that shipments normally come in on Thursdays, because on Mondays the boat “just drops of the passengers and leaves right away,” and on Saturdays there is “not a lot of cargo” because of the fact that it is a weekend. “As the boat hasn’t come on Thursday for two weeks, there’s been a shortage of green vegetables, bananas and eggs. People look for them but can’t find them anywhere,” she says.

Others wishing to travel to Praia end up forced to postpone personal and professional engagements because of the uncertainty regarding whether the boat will come or not. “People have their jobs. We can’t leave Maio on Monday and come back only on Saturday, for example,” says one of the island’s inhabitants, who also complains that Polar’s ships often arrive at the dock, let off the passengers and leave again right away. “Sometimes they get here in the morning and say they’re going to leave at 4:00 pm, and other times they decide to leave right away. If I’m working I can’t just sit at the dock and wait for them to decide what time they’re going to leave.” Maio residents also stress that this is bad for business, because investors are often stuck in Praia due to the lack of transportation options.

On top of all of the problems contributing to Maio’s isolation, since last summer, according to reports from people contacted by A Semana, land-line and cellular telephone services, as well as Internet services, simply stop functioning from time to time. In summer 2007, the services were interrupted for a full day and a half, according to the island’s inhabitants. In February of this year, there have been problems with telephone service during certain periods of the day.

A Semana contacted Cabo Verde Telecom’s representation on Maio to find out what had happened, but the engineer respoinsible for the island said he had received “no complaints” and that “this year there haven’t been any problems.”

Source: A Semana