“Here we go again! Arif, the Regional Agency for Irrigation and Forestry Activities, continues to prove non-compliant and inefficient towards the agricultural sector. The severe drought that has been raging in the fields for months is made even more critical by the Agency’s inadequate management which contributes to creating enormous inconvenience.”
Thus in a press note the regional councilor of the Brothers of Italy, Renato Perrini.
In several cases the irrigation systems are broken, in others they operate at half-service and with half-hourly shifts instead of 24 hours a day. These are water infrastructures which, especially at this time, should be restored and strengthened to avoid the loss of agricultural products in many rural areas. These serious inefficiencies prevent farmers from fighting the drought, putting the local economy at risk – underlines Perrini – all at the beginning of a summer that promises to be very hot and with farmers who have the obvious need to irrigate their fields and are in serious difficulty despite the investments made, and despite my numerous reports, forwarded since April 2022. The water emergency extends to various areas of the Ionian capital from the eastern and western sides of the province of Taranto.
Now, it is essential that measures are taken immediately to resolve these problems and guarantee adequate support to farmers – concludes Perrini – otherwise the danger of loss of production and irreparable economic damage will become a reality”.
