The story of a thirsty city cannot bring back memories of the shocking book “In the Belly of the Beast” about the American prison system, written by Jack Henry Abbott.
Yet the history of this city leads me to think back to when many years ago I read “In the Belly of the Beast” and judged the conviction without a declared sentence as madness on the part of the American judicial system. A sentence from a minimum to a maximum of…
However, while that book narrated the living conditions of prisoners, their dramas as men convicted of committing crimes, the case of the city of Agrigento is very different.
Or maybe it’s the same.
Indeed, certainly the same, as they are all guilty of having committed one of the worst crimes that a people could ever commit: Voting for almost a century for political subjects who have made this city hungry and thirsty.
So the people of Agrigento never even deserved a fine.
With this infernal heat and dry taps, the film “The Iron Prefect” also comes to mind and I seem to relive the scenes of the siege of the town of Ganci, when the prefect Cesare Mori resorted to closing the water pipes thirsting the population of the entire town, which forced the brigands to surrender to the Carabinieri.
A victory, that of Mori, which culminated in the arrest and suicide of Don Calogero Albanese, a fugitive for more than 40 years.
Is Agrigento a stronghold of bandits? The dry taps are officials at the surrender of a revived Don Calogero Albanese?
Tell us who he is, where he is, and we will deliver the Albanian brigand to you in exchange for some water.
Agrigento with all its characters is just a tragic farce. A centrifuged neuron in the brain of a madman.
Apologies, thanks, promises, but we are in the midst of a water crisis and certainly not only due to climate change, but due to the inability and inertia of an entire political class to which is added the inaction (greater than that of the Albanian brigand) of institutions that allowed the cheerful management of water reserves by private individuals, which ended after decades in seizures and judicial proceedings.
Once this phase was passed, the management of water resources passed into the hands of Aica (Agrigento Municipalities Water Company), and the process of financing for the reconstruction of the pipes began, from which approximately 60% of the water destined for users is lost. towns.
In January, AICA announced that the 40 million euro loan for the reconstruction of the city’s water network had not been paid.
A month ago, Roberto Di Mauro, regional councilor for energy and public utility services, as well as sponsor of Franco Micciché, mayor of Agrigento, was forced to admit that the financing had been lost.
A few weeks pass and the news of the recovery of around 20 million euros to implement what was planned regarding the reconstruction of the water network once again becomes a flag to wave.
Yesterday was the statement from the mayor of Agrigento in which he thanks the president of the Region, Renato Schifani and the regional councilor for public utility services, Roberto Di Mauro, for their attention and constant work to remedy a very serious and without historical precedent..
Thank you very much, but there is no water.
The press release continues with the possibility of exploiting new wells, and existing wells, which will guarantee “in just over a month approximately 120 liters of water more per second, of which the first 60 within 20 days from the start of the works , already possible with the 6 million allocated to the Agrigento province from the national allocation. Furthermore, as assured by President Schifani, the Region, through the Civil Protection, will purchase tankers and adequate means to supply the difficult accesses in the historic centre, and, above all, one million euros in the budget changes now being examined by the Ars will be foreseen for the design of the Porto Empedocle watermaker”
Evidently our political class did not know that it is hot in Sicily in the summer, that they did not have the means to supply the difficult accesses in the historic center and that the Porto Empedocle watermaker is not in operation.
Goodness them, better late than never.
To find out what the people of Agrigento think, simply read the comments on the mayor’s post.
All prerequisites for the duty to act in a state of emergency, probably by resorting to emergency measures?
A story we have already seen in the past and which we hope will not be repeated.
Meanwhile, there are quite a few people from Agrigento who are ending up regretting the “cheerful management” of water resources by private companies in the recent past.
There is never an end to the worst.
The measures put in place to deal with the crisis will certainly be functional in preventing the supplies of the precious liquid by tankers who sourced supplies outside the “regular” channels, also supplying users who did not have a contract with Aica.
With the new rules imposed, those who do not have existing relationships with the Azienda Idrica Comuni Agrigentini, as reported by AgrigentoNotizie, will have to contact the tankers based on the list of those registered to whom the transport will be paid, while the quantity of water which it was supplied will be paid to Aica.
Those who have a contractual relationship with the Agrigentini Municipalities Water Company will be able to request the intervention of the tanker by calling Aica directly or their trusted company, but always after having called Aica and agreed upon it, paying the transport to the tanker and the water – which will be included in the bill – to Aica.
Everything is OK?
Considering that the transport of water via water pipe is already paid for by the user, some doubts would also be legitimate.
Meanwhile, as stated by Dario Peretti, manager of the Il Cormorano wharf at the tourist port of San Leone, entire weeks pass without the minimum water supply necessary to meet the needs of the structure and the tourists present in the city arriving, while the little that should arrive, it is captured upstream by those who use electric motors to suck up as much water as possible, leaving users further downstream stranded.
And while tourists flee from a thirsty city, entire families left stranded – regularly with a contractual relationship with the Municipalities of Agrigento Water Company – after calling Aica they obtained the promise of being supplied within a week.
A nightmare situation, without considering those who live on the upper floors and have water containers on the roof, which cannot even be supplied by tankers.
A story that remembers the prefect Mori, the town of Ganci and the Albanian brigand.
Is there an Albanian bandit whose delivery is requested in Agrigento?
Or did the “banditry” concern any irregular tank drivers and users not contracted by AICA?
If the aim was to fight against these forms of “banditry”, everything suggests that the epilogue will be the same as that of the film “The Iron Prefect“, when Mori, after the success of the repression of banditry, raised his sights against the mafia and received the royal nomination as senator – to get him out of the way – he saw his place taken by those who had colluded with the mafia and by those same mafiosi that he had arrested.
A city with a past of malfeasance in water management, today besieged and reduced to thirst to the point of making people regret the previous cheerful management which led to seizures and criminal proceedings against those who managed the water resources of the city of temples.
“If we want everything to remain as it is, everything must change” said Tancredi, nephew of Prince Fabrizio Salina in the famous novel “The Leopard” by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa.
And in Agrigento, in the manner of Leopard’s memory, everything changes…
Gian J. Morici
