The scorching and very long Sicilian summer, without a drop of rain, can be depicted with two opposing poster-postcards: the bathers who invade the beaches, the animals who try to calm the heat in the mud puddles. The first was festive, the second was terrible. To alleviate the great thirst which has very heavy repercussions on agriculture, daily life and tourism, the national government has decided on a state of emergency, putting twenty million on the table for the most urgent interventions.
«Immediately after Rome’s approval, we started the plan of around one hundred interventions including reuse, strengthening and restructuring of wells and springs» explains Salvo Cocina, head of the Sicilian Civil Protection at the helm of the control room for the water emergency. «After fifteen days – he adds – many have complete planning, several already on site, while in some places there is already water».
«We also financed – continues Cocina – the repairs of eighty municipal tankers and the purchase of dozens more. Every week there is a meeting with the ATI, the territorial water assemblies made up of the municipalities, and with the water managers who are responsible for implementation and water supply”.
«We are talking about the drinking water sector which concerns the existence of people, day by day – the head of Civil Protection illustrates the plans -. Ten million have already been allocated and another twenty will arrive thanks to the commitment of the regional government, with the next financial measure. The emergency strategy is completed with medium-term projects, such as desalination plants, for which the Region has obtained resources from the Development and Cohesion Fund and is now moving quickly, anticipating the sums. In the long term, intervention programs worth hundreds of millions on the dams are underway.”
«The most serious scenario – concludes the engineer – for the supply shifts is that linked to Lake Fanaco, now almost dried up, which concerns some areas of Agrigento and Caltanissetta. There is not, for now, a large emergency, but there are many local emergencies. We must all make a concerted effort, as happened with Covid.”
Precisely for Agrigento a permanent table on the water crisis has been established. In the meantime, we are equipping ourselves with the bins, as best we can, in a panorama of serious discomfort due to the intermittent taps. Beyond good will, the horizon appears, at the moment, full of unknowns and justified concerns.
The suffering of agriculture is a parallel drama that is deepening. «Vouchers will be provided quickly to Sicilian farmers for the purchase of fodder for the animals – informs a note from the Region -. The measure to combat the effects of the drought provides for an allocation of ten million euros and has received the favorable opinion of the third Productive Activities Commission of the Sicilian Regional Assembly. This last step will allow the regional Agriculture Department to complete the procedure and publish the notice with which farmers will be able to submit applications.”
But the context remains very critical. The desperate cry of exhausted farmers is summed up by Rosario Marchese Ragona, president of Confagricoltura Sicilia. «The situation is dramatic – he says -. The dams are empty, there is a strong concern for all crops, not to mention the livestock heritage which risks disappearing. We are paying for fifty years of mismanagement, with delays, inefficiencies and untested works. The reaction is slow compared to needs. I receive many phone calls a day. The farmers are exasperated and ready to take to the streets.”
