«In these hours, after months of agony and after an incredible week of unbreathable miasmas, Lake Pergusa has almost completely disappeared, in its place remains a blackish patch of damp mud that is drying in the sun of this summer that has just begun. Its disappearance, certainly attributable to the very serious climate crisis that is gripping Sicily, was however speeded up by the total inattention and inertia of the bodies which, instead, should have intervened in various capacities”. This was stated by Giuseppe Maria Amato, Water Resources Management representative of Legambiente Sicilia.
«Above all, one great, very guilty absentee, the Schifani government. In fact – he adds – the lake, it must be said and reiterated, is the property of the Sicilian Region, and the Natural Reserve of Lake Pergusa, which is managed by what was once the regional Province of Enna, is a piece of the regional administration entrusted , too often without funds, to the aforementioned local authority. Legambiente Sicilia had already obtained the convocation of a technical table to address the crisis in 2023, and we remember very well several declarations from the bodies that should have taken action and above all from the regional councilor for the territory, Elena Pagana who since then, despite having come to Pergusa has no longer said a word on the state of health of the lake several times, but rather defended the excellent environmental management of the racetrack, an oxymoron”.
«We predicted it, by July Lake Pergusa would disappear and the disappearance came earlier, with the summer solstice – continues Amato – For years we have asked for the restoration of the environmental monitoring system and the cleaning of the various channels that from the natural basin of the lake they carry water. The cleaning interventions were carried out only partially and in a poorly coordinated manner between the bodies, so much so that accumulations of solid material can still be observed at the bottom of the canals which interrupt the descent of the liquids towards the lake. If the table had remained active, today we would at least have data on the condition of the aquifer.”
