BARI (ITALPRESS) – The Puglia Region has decided to authorize the use of up to 4 million euros of the regional resources of the three-year environmental planning of the Province of Foggia to intervene in a lasting way on the artificial canals that connect the lakes of Lesina and Varano, in order to restore oxygen and revitalize the largest coastal lagoon ecosystem in Italy. This is the outcome shared at the end of a technical table, chaired by the vice-president of the Puglia Region and councilor for Budget, Infrastructure and Public Works, Raffaele Piemontese, requested by the mayors of Cagnano Varano Michele Di Pumpo, of Carpino Rocco Di Brina, of Ischitella Alessandro Nobiletti and Lesina Primiano Di Mauro. “We must break the chain of emergencies that repeats itself annually and which damages a piece of the Apulian territory which is precious from an environmental and economic point of view”, said the president of the Puglia Region, Michele Emiliano, who, with respect to the new pressing requests expressed by the mayors and communities of the northern Gargano, had encouraged “to multiply efforts to cooperate in the search for lasting solutions”. To allow the oxygenation of the lagoons, operations will be carried out immediately to unblock the canals and improve the circulation of water between the lakes and the sea.
But the most important news is linked to the financial availability made available by the Puglia Region to tackle the problem in a more radical way. “We anticipated the desire to authorize the regional funds for the three-year environmental programming which are intended for the Province of Foggia, which could be concentrated on interventions for the mouths of the lakes of Lesina and Varano, for which no funding was foreseen”, explains the Piedmontese vice-president who considers it “important that mayors and territories have shared a useful approach to escape from the emergency logic: in this sense, a total portfolio of up to 4 million euros appeared more adequate and sufficient to plan immediately and to implement from September interventions that make the effects needed to overcome the agony of our great lakes more stable and long-lasting”. In the meeting which took place in Bari, in the offices of the Budget Department, which was also attended by the directors of the Budget, General Affairs and Infrastructure Departments, Lino Albanese, and Environment, Landscape and Urban Quality, Paolo Garofoli, with the managers regional and municipal technicians, it was also decided that, to ensure the ordinary maintenance of the Lesina and Varano mouths, part of the funds will be allocated to purchasing two “sorbones”, particular vacuum cleaners used to remove mud and sand from the seabed. “We express our appreciation for the resolute way in which the Puglia Region has taken the lead in an action to defend the lakes of Lesina and Varano which aims to avoid, in the immediate future, the risks linked to the rise in temperatures in the coming weeks and, immediately after the summer, to carry out a larger and more complex intervention”, said the mayors of Cagnano Varano, Carpino, Ischitella and Lesina, sharing a statement in which they expressed “gratitude for the timeliness with which the The Puglia Region has collected the requests of our territory and for the incisiveness with which the Piedmontese vice president has oriented the joint work towards an improved outcome of the projects that we presented 10 days ago, deciding to increase the resources to be authorized in relation to the development of a more complex project than the most urgent ones that we had advanced”. Lake Varano is divided between the municipalities of Cagnano Varano, Carpino and Ischitella, has a surface area of approximately 60 square kilometers which makes it the largest Italian coastal lake, the seventh national lake and the largest in southern Italy: it communicates with the Adriatic Sea through the canals of the mouth of Varano and the mouth of Capojale. Lake Lesina, in the territory of the municipality of the same name, has a surface area of over 51 square kilometers making it the ninth Italian lake and the second in southern Italy by extension: the inflow and outflow of brackish waters with the Adriatic takes place through the Acquarotta and Schiapparo canals. – Photo: Puglia Region press office – (ITALPRESS). pc/com 14-Jun-24 12:50 .
