Service by Elle Biscarini
Ten months with the fear that the embankment of the Santa Margherita ditch would finally give way. No intervention, despite calls and a continuous reminder of responsibility. This is the complaint of the four families residing around the ditch, on the outskirts of Ponte San Giovanni: in July 2023, a massive storm hit Perugia, swelling the stream. The water carries away a meter of the embankment, leaving fences and palisades dangling in the void.
Of the three interventions of the former mountain community, only a few remnants of large mesh netting and stones can be seen, destroyed by the current and transformed into dangerous debris that could block the flow of water and create further flooding. The only intervention that remains standing is the cliff of large stones built by the Municipality in 2020, but that too is unfinished and has begun to give way. «We asked the Municipality and the Region – says Vania, one of the residents – but we didn’t get a response. They say we have to keep the banks clean and we do, but we can’t go down to the bed of the stream. This is not a job that a private individual can do.”
