On the night between 2 and 3 November last year in Tuscany, heavy rains caused rivers and streams to overflow, flooded homes and businesses, seriously damaged infrastructure and caused the death of nine people. The most affected were the towns near the Bisenzio river, which flooded in several places, between the provinces of Prato and Florence. The works identified for the reconstruction are around 800, with a cost of almost 2 billion euros foreseen in the report made by the president of the Tuscany Region Eugenio Giani, who had been appointed delegate commissioner for emergency management but who completed all the tasks foreseen by the assignment at the beginning of February.
Since then, a new commissioner to deal with the reconstruction phase has not been appointed. This is also why the procedures are going slowly, given that much of the burden falls on local administrations. He told it to Corriere della Sera Andrea Tagliaferri, the mayor of Campi Bisenzio, one of the municipalities most damaged by the flood: the reimbursements provided by the State are gradually arriving, «but the real point is that we still don’t know anything about the reconstruction: the Region has sent the list to Rome of the restoration and safety improvement works, but the uncertainty is tremendous”, said Tagliaferri.
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In these cases, the appointment of an extraordinary commissioner should make it possible to speed up the procedures and therefore resolve the emergency and the subsequent reconstruction phase more quickly. He is a figure established by a 1988 law, and has special powers for a limited period of time. However, the procedure for appointing the commissioner starts from the government: he is in fact appointed with a decree from the President of the Republic, but on the proposal of the Prime Minister.
An extraordinary commissioner can be essential in emergency contexts, such as natural disasters, because he can act in derogation of some regulations in force regarding public contracts, in order to operate more quickly to assign the contracted works. It means that he can shorten bureaucratic times for jobs that cannot wait.
For example, following the flood in Emilia-Romagna in May 2023, General Francesco Paolo Figliuolo, former extraordinary commissioner for the coronavirus emergency, was appointed as extraordinary commissioner for reconstruction, who according to local administrators is significantly facilitating the reconstruction. Already last September Massimo Isola, mayor of Faenza (Ravenna), had said that the support of Commissioner Figliuolo was making it possible to “conclude very quickly” works that could have lasted years without the presence of a specific structure.
Usually, for emergencies in specific areas, local administrators are appointed, who have greater knowledge of the area than external experts and therefore know how and where to intervene urgently. In Emilia-Romagna, the president of the region, Stefano Bonaccini, was indicated as emergency commissioner, but then the role of reconstruction commissioner was entrusted to Figliuolo.
In the case of the flood in Tuscany, however, the government entrusted Giani to the role of delegate commissioner president of the Region, who however only had the task of managing the emergency. Giani completed the tasks assigned to him by February, as expected, but since then nothing has been heard regarding the appointment of a reconstruction commissioner, who should take over from the emergency commissioner and complete the work .
«The worst thing is the uncertainty, the lack of a perspective for the future. The appointment of the commissioner for reconstruction must be made immediately”, Tagliaferri told al Courier. Without the commissioner there is a stalemate for the great things to be done, the great projects to repair the damaged infrastructure, but also to provide compensation to the affected inhabitants and companies.
According to Alia, the company that manages environmental services in 58 municipalities in central Tuscany, the flood affected around 45 thousand homes. At the end of November the Tuscany Region put the platform online to receive the first requests for reimbursement from people who had suffered damage. There is also another type of contribution called CAS, an acronym for independent accommodation contribution, for those who have had to leave their home and are staying with relatives or friends. But the procedures are not easy, and above all slow: Tagliaferri said that in his municipality “there are hundreds, if not thousands of families who have not yet received anything” and that “the strong wait easily becomes exasperation”, even if they are starting to arrive the contributions of the Region.
According to what Giani told al Courier «in the face of 10 thousand questions [arrivate alla Regione]5,100 have received the money, a thousand are the subject of a forthcoming decree which will be approved this week, everyone will see the refunds by June and to date this is the only money that the families have had, 3 thousand euros per family”.
According to Tagliaferri, things are a little further ahead for businesses, because at least the medium-large ones “started again with their own strength, while it was more difficult for small artisans and workshops”. In this area there is a high concentration of textile companies: there are around 7,000 of which just over 2,000 make or treat fabrics. The water invaded hundreds of them, destroying machinery, plants and warehouses. According to Giani, the companies would have received a total of 37 million euros.
It is all money advanced by the local administrations, which are gradually recovering it from state funds: according to Giani, the municipalities «have received 33 million from the State, while the 67 million announced by Meloni during his visit to Florence have been allocated but are at a standstill because there is no the decree on application and disbursement methods. The other 88 million allocated in recent days will also take time.”
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