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֎The process of desertification of certain areas of Sicily has been going on for thirty years now. «The reservoirs are inadequate, also because they are saturated with mud; the water network is old: 50 percent of the resources are lost. Yet no action is taken except with stopgap measures.” The culture of maintenance is missing
Every summer is like this in Sicily, the season of great thirst. All over the island. The countryside around Caltanissetta is also a desert: «Our animals are dying», is the appeal of Luca Cammarata, owner of an organic farm. The photo of his goats forced to drink in a puddle of mud is now the symbol of the latest Sicilian emergency. Luca Cammarata asks for the help of the prefect and the army: «There is no more time to waste. Previously, the reclamation consortium network was able to guarantee a water rotation every five or six days. Now, they can no longer tell us if they will be able to open the taps.”
The farmers of Caltanissetta are organizing themselves with tankers, as are the hoteliers of Agrigento. «But without concrete help for the water crisis we are ready to give up the title of capital of culture», announces the mayor of the city of temples, Franco Miccichè. At the moment, the only alternative really seems to be private tankers: «But the costs are unsustainable, up to one hundred euros per trip – says Francesco Picarella, owner of the Viale di Agrigento hotel – in the city there are areas that normally receive the water only twice a week. How will shopkeepers or owners of bed and breakfast of the historic center that cannot install cisterns?”.
Right in the historic center of Agrigento the first protests arrived from tourists who were guests of B&Bs, left without water for a week: they left, abruptly interrupting their stays. «This is not the way to do tourism», denounces Francesco Picarella, president of Federalberghi Agrigento.
«But this is not today’s story, the process of desertification of certain areas of Sicily has been going on for thirty years now», engineer Gerlando Ginex, the director of the regional Energy and Services department, tries to tone down the controversy of public utility that keeps the 26 Sicilian dams under control. «In the provinces of Caltanissetta and Enna the reservoirs have emptied by up to 90 percent», he says. «And it’s not today’s story», he reiterates.
But if this is an old story, which comes up punctually every year, why is action always delayed? And, above all, why isn’t the water crisis season prevented? Nello Battiato, president of Cna Sicilia, the National Confederation of Crafts and Small and Medium Enterprises, asks himself this: «The reservoirs are inadequate, also because they are saturated with mud; the water network is old: 50 percent of the resources are lost. Yet no action is taken except with stopgap measures.”
The Meloni government intervened with the declaration of a state of emergency due to the drought in Sicily only in May, when there were already the first signs of the crisis. Result: 20 million euros were allocated. Little thing. The request made by the regional council chaired by Renato Schifani was 130 million immediately and 590 in the long term. The Forza Italia governor tried to relaunch with the establishment of a “control room” to coordinate all the interventions “never done in the past”.
But the wind of protest due to the great thirst grows day after day. «There continues to be a failed water management policy – Coldiretti denounces -. And this year, the damage is even greater. The drought has eliminated wheat production in Sicily, the risk is the closure of many companies.” In the heart of Sicily, farmers have been agitated for months due to the crisis in the sector, then came the drought: in Valledolmo, in the province of Palermo, 200 handed in their electoral cards before the vote.
Renato Schifani relaunches his “control room”. But those twenty million announced by the former president of the Sicilian Region who became Minister of Civil Protection, Nello Musumeci, will barely serve to fix things that should work but instead don’t. For example, some wells. And then, the tankers: only 8 new ones will be purchased, there are 78 to be repaired. Metaphor of a Sicily that continues to resemble the paths around the Rosamarina Dam, an enchanting but desolate panorama. The only beautiful villa is being renovated by an American entrepreneur. Which, evidently, he saw beyond the desert.
Sorry to say it but Sicilians are fine with this, they’ve been living in this situation for years.
I have met many Sicilians and they are hardworking and honest people. But the political class is the opposite.
The story about the world of work done by the Sicilians themselves, about public services and administration makes one’s skin crawl. I understand that it is difficult for a resident Sicilian to get out of this situation but if something is not done the risk is the division of the country as the weight of this region and many others in the south will become unbearable for the productive regions.
It took a dramatic event such as the collapse of a bridge with 40 deaths to make Italians understand that the works built in the past are not eternal and that they need maintenance. Same thing for aqueducts. But while a collapsed bridge is an eyesore made up of rubble, victims and angry motorists, the drought is more subtle because you hope it is an exceptional situation, next winter will be better, there are tankers and bottled water to get by… And then a candle lit to the Madonna costs much less.
The water problem has always been a problem and the various administrations have in fact done nothing at all.
For years, climate forecast studies have been saying that Sicily, together with North Africa, will be heading towards desertification due to drought in 2040. And these Right-wing politicians invented the Bridge. And the Sicilians continue to give them the majority of votes. What are we talking about?
Francesco Sannicandro
