Trapani watermaker, question Ciminnisi (M5S): «Still no concrete solution close to the summer and no planning to address the water crisis».

Trapani, 26 April 2024 – «Two weeks after the establishment of the control room for the water crisis, and at the gates of summer, I fear that the emergency approach and the delay are resulting in a theory of expert opinions, consultancy and academic indications, but still without concrete and practicable solutions, which are instead what Sicily needs.”

This was stated by the Trapani regional deputy of the M5S, Cristina Ciminnisi, announcing a question on the reactivation of the decommissioned watermaker in Trapani, on which the regional government had initially declared it wanted to focus.

«The reactivation of the decommissioned watermakers announced by President Schifani, with statements to the press, in light of the technical reconnaissance carried out in recent days appears impracticable – says Ciminnisi –. It would take no less than 12 months and cost more than 20 million euros for each plant. Equally impracticable seems to be the acquisition of mobile watermakers, which are difficult to find on the market due to the foresight of other European countries which, unlike Sicily, moved in time. Knowing the history of those plants, it was not difficult to imagine that, beyond the announcement effect, these measures would have revealed themselves for what they are: decoys that do not resolve the emergency.”

The Trapani regional deputy of the M5S, Cristina Ciminnisi, therefore asks for concrete elements in the question, if there are any: «it is not yet clear whether the hypothesis of starting from the desalination plants of Trapani and Porto Empedocle, as the privileged choice which the regional government seemed to have aimed at, is still on the table, but above all it is not clear on the basis of which cost-benefit analysis : the risk is that the mountain gives birth to a little mouse and, moreover, that the proposed solution, in addition to being impracticable and late in its effects, is also uneconomical. In the meantime, agriculture is on its knees and citizens are exhausted due to the rationing of water resources throughout the territory.”

“In the end – he concludes – we do not know what other interventions are planned to address the water crisis. This Government is groping its way forward and there is no shadow of real solutions on the horizon.”