The Agrigento Social Cartel has written a letter to the President of the Region, Renato Schifani, on the water crisis that is affecting the province.
Here is the text of the letter: “As you know, the city of Agrigento, as well as the province and many areas of our island, currently suffers from an insufficiency of water supply which creates considerable inconvenience for the population, damage to crops, a situation which risks undermining civil coexistence and public order. Meanwhile, discontent and anger are expressed by people who feel cheated and who are tired of ephemeral promises, as was seen in the popular demonstration which brought over 2,000 people to the streets. To make the matter more serious, if it were possible, comes the notice of “containment measures” from Siciliacque, the management body of the water overflow, which orders Aica to proceed immediately to pay off a debt of 18 million euros, a request which would put the consortium company that manages the integrated water service in the province of Agrigento in serious difficulty. A context that raises perplexity and serious concerns regarding the consequences of a reduction in supplies and Aica’s difficulties in meeting its financial commitments to Sicily’s waters. We hope for your authoritative intervention in this matter to settle this dispute so that the province of Agrigento does not have to suffer a reduction in supplies of the precious liquid. At the same time, it is noted that an intervention by the Civil Protection cannot be further postponed so that the Porto Empedocle watermaker is restored with an emergency procedure in order to deal with the current emergency also in view of the next summer months which the population looks forward to many fears. The idea of putting the Porto Empedocle plant back into operation is fully shared by the mayor of Agrigento and the entire community but the problem remains that of the time required to put it back into operation and this is why the Civil Protection is called upon to act with great speed. Acting as interpreters of the requests received from a large part of the population, we ask you for a meeting so that we can learn from the most authoritative interlocutors on the issue in order to make people aware of what the Regional Government is preparing to do and in order to appease the tempers and prevent there being an escalation of tension. Counting on your sensitivity and sense of responsibility, we hope that this request can be accepted and shared, as is expected by the entire population of Agrigento.
