DOSSIER – Dry taps and water lost on the street: Agrigento’s new water network has been held hostage by bureaucracy for 15 years
Let’s start with the 45 million loan that is talked about so much. Why was the operation unsuccessful?
The 45 million Agrigento water network project was financed at the end of 2021 when Miccichè was already mayor and when the governor of Sicily was Nello Musumeci. Available money and sums granted to Aica, the municipal water company of Agrigento, which duly completed the tender with a company which was then awarded the contract. However, there was a deadline that was too close: the work had to be completed by the end of 2023. A truly tight timeframe if one considers the various phases of such a complex project, from the purely bureaucratic aspects to the actual practical act. In short, a sumptuous work had to be completed in just 2 years. So much so that, as expected, the deadline was not met. In fact, the work hasn’t even started. Since it was a loan obtained with the so-called European Social Funds, strictly linked to compliance with the deadlines, unfortunately it was not possible to exploit it. Personally, and in all honesty, I must admit that I already knew that the water network could never be built in such conditions. Impossible to finish it by December 31, 2023. But it wasn’t all in vain. We cannot fail to take into account this progress, albeit incomplete. And in fact today I had the opportunity to justify the interest and continue to keep the project alive.
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And what happens now? Why do you maintain that the idea of the water network remains standing?
Not only does it remain standing, but it will come to fruition. The project still exists, there is a signed contract that no one intends to cancel or lead to litigation. The new opportunity we find ourselves facing today is called the Development and Cohesion Fund (FSC). This is the Italian government’s main instrument for financing and implementing policies to reduce economic and social imbalances on the national territory. It collects additional national resources, to be added to the ordinary ones and to the community and national co-financing ones. Today this fund makes 6 billion and 680 million euros available for various interventions. Among these, just to give an emblematic example, there is also the construction of the bridge over the Strait of Messina. And there is also a specific item regarding the water network in Agrigento. In short, there is money to do it, the new decree will be signed in Palermo by the end of the month in the presence of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. At that point, it would take 6 years to build the new water network. But 3 will be enough (as per the specifications) to make it a reality. I’m not talking about hypotheses, the news is official: thanks to FSC funds we are back in the running to have our infrastructure. These are projects that concern not only Sicily. There are a total of 16 and the first to be presented refers to the Liguria region. But they will walk hand in hand and will all be presented together for signing with President Meloni.
Is there a risk of failing again?
“I don’t want to blame anyone for what happened previously. It must be admitted that the tender procedures and all the bureaucracy caused excessive slowdowns in an already very short period of time. Having put the past aside, we can now count on a contract, secure financing with FSC funds, the winning company and an agreement with Meloni which will be signed in a few days. But above all, a longer operational time already streamlined by all that preparatory bureaucracy that was overcome with the operations already concluded at the time of the first European financing. At this point it is forbidden to fail. We can already start work in 2 months.”
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Yet the previous financing is considered by various political parties as a failure…
“These are slanders for electoral purposes. The Municipality of Agrigento is not at fault. Aica has done its part and as a councilor I have an agreement with President Schifani to give Agrigento its water network. As soon as he saw the rumor linked to the Agrigento Schifani project, it was very clear: we absolutely must consider it a priority.”
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And to deal with the current emergency?
The Region, let us remember, has established a control room to deal with drought both in terms of human consumption and irrigation activities. This is a state-recognized emergency to regenerate wells and make repairs. This initiative was also accompanied by the indication of 90 million euros also included in the Development and Cohesion Fund. In Sicily, the installation of desalination modules is planned in Porto Empedocle, Gela and Trapani. They will be done in these places because watermakers already exist, albeit not working and damaged by vandals. It involves using the canalization method by exploiting the already existing water network that leads to these systems. It is therefore sufficient to install additional modules to use sea water and thus increase the general flow rate. A buffer solution that will certainly provide its benefits.
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And the agricultural sector?
I also deal with the management of dams and in the province of Agrigento we have the Castello dam for mixed use, the Gorgo lake and the Arancio lake for exclusively irrigation use. I managed to get 3 projects approved by inserting the same number of items into the Development and Cohesion Fund: 20 million for the Castello dam, 18 million for Lake Gorgo and 3 million 800 thousand euros for Lake Arancio. In short, we have implemented a process that exclusively concerns irrigation. It is not immediate, but it certainly has great potential and has been shared by the Rome dam office. So we can already go to the race and all this represents a further prospect in terms of improvement.”
