A year of water emergency and extraordinary interventions in Sicily. The Council of Ministers has approved a national state of emergency due to the drought on the island, as requested in recent days by the regional council, for a duration of 12 months, allocating the first 20 million euros, with the possibility of increasing resources in short times already during the implementation of the first interventions. The President of the Region also participated in the meeting at Palazzo Chigi.
The Sicilian government has already sent all the necessary documentation to Rome, drawing up a list of the interventions necessary to reduce the effects of the crisis due to the lack of rain. The solutions proposed by the control room, led by the governor and coordinated by the head of the regional civil protection, are differentiated based on the implementation times.
The measures that will be adopted
Among those quickly implemented, the purchase of new tankers in municipalities in crisis and the arrangement of other vehicles in around a hundred local authorities; approximately 130 interventions including regeneration of existing wells, drilling of twin wells and reactivation of abandoned ones, in addition to the revamping of around thirty springs; the strengthening of pumping systems and pipelines; the construction of new interconnection and bypass pipelines.
For the next few months, however, we are evaluating the restructuring and restarting of the desalination plants of Porto Empedocle, in the Agrigento area, and of Trapani, operations that will require longer times and tender procedures, as there are no substantial exceptions in environmental and procurement matters above the community threshold.
Nine tables in the individual provinces with the Civil Engineers
At the same time, the regional Civil Protection department has established nine technical tables in the Civil Engineering offices of the capitals of each province, with representatives of the Water Department, the Reclamation Consortia, and the Basin Authority. The tables identified and selected the interventions according to priority and will then proceed to monitor the implementation phases. Furthermore, several meetings have already been held with Siciliacque, Aica Agrigento, Caltacque and Acque Enna.
Schifani’s satisfaction
“I thank the government for the sensitivity shown and Minister Musumeci for the allocation of the first 20 million euros and for the commitment to implement the resources quickly in the wake of a close collaborative relationship between the Region and the national government” declared the governor Renato Schifani at the end of the Council of Ministers.
