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Approximately two hours of reports by Aipo engineers Massimo Valente and Gianluca Zanichelli, introduced by the report by Engineer Francesca Lugli, of the Regional Civil Protection Agency and concluded by the intervention of the regional councilor for the environment Irene Priolo. To illustrate to citizens interventions following the 2014 flood carried out to improve the hydraulic safety of the Modena junction. The most critical in Emilia-Romagna and one of the most critical in Italy. The 2014 flood, with the collapse of the banks of the Secchia in San Matteo di Modena, marked a watershed. After years of substantial immobility that followed the construction of the expansion tanks on the Secchia and Panaro rivers in the 70s and 80s, 2014 marked almost a zero year for investments and interventions for hydraulic safety.
The fact is that the interventions which mainly concerned the Secchia and Panaro embankments downstream of the respective expansion basins (for the first at TR50 floods and the second for TR20 floods), have not yet been accompanied by one of the most awaited structural interventions years, or the adaptation to floods with TR50 Return Times the Secchia expansion tank system.
Until now, and at least in the last ten years, the general disaster for Modena too, and without taking anything away from that of Nonantola in 2020, has been avoided almost exclusively not so much by the interventions, even if significant such as the one downstream and upstream of Ponte High, which were achieved, but by the fact that the province of Modena was, so to speak, ‘graced’ by important rainfall and flood events which never exceeded a return period of more than 20 years.
And which allowed the system, especially that of Secchia, to hold up, despite its inadequacy with respect to full events with a return time of 100 or even only 50.
Not even in 2020 and not even last May. Return Time 20 on which in these years, following 2014, the Secchia embankment system has been adjusted, downstream of the Marzaglia expansion tanks and in the section that crosses Modena, Bastiglia and heads towards the lower part of the river.
Because before 2014 and in fact until the recent conclusion of the strengthening and leveling works, the Secchia embankment system was not adequate even for a minimum flood level. That is, the one to which the lamination of the expansion tank is sized, which has been waiting for an adjustment to TR50 for about 20 years. And it is precisely about the delays in the works to adapt the reservoir, to the TR50 flood lamination and which would involve the demolition of the current barrier and the reconstruction of a new one equipped, like the one on the Panaro expansion reservoir, with gates for manual regulation, that the discussion became lively.
Prodding and reminding technicians and politicians how much the interventions implemented in recent years on the Secchia river have improved the response but only in the case of small floods, without leading to any increase in the capacity for managing larger events, were the representatives of the Arginiamo, Secchia and Environmental Health committees. ‘We have been talking about it for 20 years but nothing has moved yet and this evening we are here listening to the same Aipo technicians who have written for years in their reports that it was necessary to intervene’ – states Silvetri of the Secchia Committee, addressing engineer Gianluca Zanichelli, author of a detailed report held as a reference in the scientific and political fields on the state of the post-flood hydraulic node. Report in which critical issues and priorities were very clear. Many of which remained in the recommendation book. ‘Safety measures according to national protocols must guarantee adaptation to large, century-long floods and this has not happened for at least ten years’
But it is Zanichelli himself who explains and reassures on this point: ‘They are complex works with complex passages that need their time. Which in the case of interventions on the cash register is imminent. Eng also intervenes on this point. Valens. ‘We are just waiting for the green light from the General Directorate of Dams. The project is there, the financing is there too. We could entrust the project as early as next summer’
The evening also saw the presentation of the project for the water lift from the Naviglio to the Panaro to defend the municipality from the risk of flooding in the event of the Panaro flooding, closure of the Vinciane gates and raising of the level of the canal and saturation of the expansion house of meadows of San Clemente, continued with the report by Councilor Irene Priolo. Interrupted by the disappointment of some citizens in the audience, including some representatives of the committees.
The atmosphere heats up when she talks about the weather event of May 2023 which brought catastrophe in Romagna and, says Priolo, a major flood also in Modena against which the system held up, also thanks to the improvements made. The representatives of the committees blurt out and report the technical data of the May flood in Modena. Small, very small, below the TR20 but which, despite this, created a state of alert and the closure of bridges. ‘Not because of a major flood but because of the inadequacy of the system’ – they say. ‘We don’t want to be fooled’ – say the committees. Councilor Priolo struggles to resume the discussion. The mayor invites people to tone down and leave those who continue to talk. The citizens themselves will abandon the room. Councilor Priolo resumes but generates groans and criticism when he speaks for Romagna of a flood with a return time of 1500 years. ‘Random data never reported anywhere, such as the 4.5 billion cubic meters that fell in the two events of May 2023 in Romagna and repeated several times by Bonaccini but later scaled down by the University of Modena to 780 million cubic metres’ – some members of the committees point out. At that point others leave. ‘We are ready to discuss all aspects’ – promises councilor Priolo now at the stroke of midnight, ‘but believe me. Up to now 100 million euros have been invested and spent on completed works. In recent years it cannot be said that efforts have not been made and things have not improved’
Gianni Galeotti
