The Prefect of Catania Maria Carmela Librizzi, has convened a table for Thursday 9 March on the agricultural crisis and drought in the metropolitan area of Catania. The request arrived last Monday from Confagricoltura, which motivated the request for a meeting for a reminder and to arrive at “the immediate recognition of the state of national calamity due to permanent drought”. An acknowledgment that then arrived on the same day.
A meeting to illustrate the “dramatic situation”
Confagricoltura Catania therefore takes “favorable note of the convocation, thanking the Prefect for the promptness and sensitivity shown in accepting the request to convene an urgent table”. The meeting will be the occasion to take stock of the real and dramatic situation of the Etna agricultural sector is experiencing, with irreparable damage to production, devastating economic repercussions for companies and the risk of job losses. “The agricultural sector – explains the president of Confagricoltura Catania, Joshua Arcoria – suffered the consequences of last summer’s scorching heat and continues to be afflicted by anomalous climatic conditions, with serious water shortages for irrigation and animal feed. The Sicilian Region has requested a state of disaster due to drought, highlighting the seriousness of the situation involving the entire regional territory, but we are awaiting approval from the national government. Time is already over, we need to be united in the request for maximum urgency.”
