Almost a year after the violent flood that hit Romagna on 16 May 2023, causing damage that affected families and businesses, the Unica Reti heritage company and the 30 municipalities of the province of Forlì-Cesena are promoting an important innovation on the topic of water meteoric events and the management of urban drainage systems. An evolution considered appropriate and necessary also to respond to the changing needs and disruptive effects of ongoing climate change, creating a barrier that can safeguard the territory from increasingly evident hydrogeological risks. All in the knowledge that a more sustainable management of rainwater can be the key to adapting and reducing the impact caused by extreme climate change.
“On the basis of these cognitive elements, of the authoritative opinions acquired through the interventions expressed during the conference held in December 2023 in Forlì on urban drainage systems, on the favorable consensus consolidated among the managers and officials of the municipal technical offices involved in the reconnaissance, the 30 Municipalities of ATO 8 Forlì-Cesena have taken the decision to entrust the integrated rainwater management service to the water service manager starting from 1 January 2025, favoring the logical and appropriate integration of water systems, as also advocated from the most recent community directives, also taking advantage of the regulatory and tariff opportunities that ARERA has recently introduced with the new MTI 4 (the new tariff method in force from 2024)”.
These are the words that Stefano Bellavista, sole director of Unica Reti Spa, addressed today, Thursday 11 April, to the administrators of the 30 Municipalities of the province of Forlì-Cesena, during the Assembly of the Local Council of ATERSIR Forlì-Cesena , in the presence, among others, of the Councilors for the Environment of the Municipalities of Cesena and Forlì, Francesca Lucchi and Giuseppe Petetta and Francesca Lucchi, respectively president and coordinator of ATERSIR ER.
The one relating to the assignment of the rainwater management service, a decision approved by the Local Council of Forlì-Cesena, constitutes an appropriate step, also referred to by LR n.4/2007 which, in article 5, establishes that in order to achieve greater economic and management convenience, the management of separate sewerage systems, canalizations and systems for the collection and conveyance of rainwater runoff from impervious surfaces, as well as the management of systems for the collection and purification of the first rainwater is included among the activities of the integrated water service starting from 1 January 2007.
During today’s meeting, the results of the survey carried out by Unica Reti, starting from 2022 in collaboration with Hera – Water Division and with the technical support of ENVIA, on the rainwater networks present within the perimeter of the urban agglomerations of the 30 municipalities. There are 827 kilometers of sewerage network in the Forlì-Cesena area for a total of 1,471 drains and 138,360 drains: a heritage to be strengthened and made adaptive to better respond to the challenges represented by climate change.
“At the same time as the start of the reconnaissance of the assets, a specific mapping was produced” highlighted the administrator Bellavista, underlining how the mapping “will be able to effectively guide the necessary action of analysis of the critical issues of urban drainage and the subsequent fundamental planning work interventions of an adaptive nature and to mitigate the impacts that precipitation determines on the Forlì-Cesena area. Of particular importance is the fact that the reconnaissance work carried out produced a mapping including numerous interventions of necessary infrastructural adaptation registered with the ambition of being able to be candidates for financing on the special State-Region funds for the fight against hydrogeological instability”.
