Yesterday morning, at 11.00, the III Productive Activities Commission of the Ars met, chaired by the Hon. Gaspare Vitrano at the request of the Hon. Carmelo Pace, in the presence of some members of the same, of the Commissioner for the drought emergency Dario Cartabellotta, of the Commissioner and Director of the Reclamation Consortium, Baldassare Giarraputo and Giovanni Tomasino, of the General Secretary of the Basin Authority, Leonardo Santoro, of the leaders of ESA and the Regional Civil Protection, and in which I participated together with my fellow Mayors of Bivona, Lucca Sicula and Cammarata.
During the Commission’s work, the dramatic water situation affecting our territory was taken stock of.
Some proposals were represented and discussed, including those contemplated in the unanimous document that the Administration and the Ribera City Council produced and sent to the National and Regional Government bodies and other further feasible hypotheses to deal with the emergency in the short term, medium and long term.
the Hon. Pace, among others, has put forward the proposal to design a new reservoir on the Verdura river which would allow the reservoir of as much water as currently flows on the riverbed and is lost into the sea.
Among the proposals that were accepted by those present, the one convincingly supported by Eng. Santoro which would envisage, in the short term, the construction of dams along the lower Verdura river useful for preventing significant quantities of water resources from continuing to end up in the sea.
Another proposal on the table for discussion concerns (always in the immediate future) the drafting of specific regulations between the Sicilian Region, Enel, the Reclamation and Civil Engineering Consortium, which recognizes as a priority the use of water from the Gammauta reservoir for transfer by gravity to the Castello dam, through the connecting road.
It was requested by the Mayors present to Eng. Santoro the possible assignment of volumes of water to the Reclamation Consortium for irrigation use in view of the summer season now upon us, so as to allow for the most adequate planning of the next irrigation campaign. He also assured that in a reasonably short time, he will communicate to the Reclamation Consortium (which has already made a formal request) the volumes of water to be allocated for irrigation purposes.
Finally, taking into account the well-known water suffering that our district has now been experiencing structurally for several years, mention was also made of the long-term hypothesis of the recovery and updating of the feasibility study for the design of the so-called Valentino dam.
The Commission, having taken note of the proposals that emerged at the discussion table, has undertaken to draft and vote, on Tuesday 30 April, a resolution to be addressed to the Government of the Sicilian Region to use every type of resource for the implementation of the infrastructures necessary to remedy the serious emergency in progress.
In thanking the Hon. Peace for the request for hearing, the President Hon. Vitrano for the immediate availability shown and all the participants in the same, I assure together with the other Mayors of the district, the utmost attention and maximum commitment so that the proposals and solutions still proposed today can find concrete and rapid implementation in support of the agricultural and livestock sector, fundamental sectors for the economy and social fabric of our district.
The Mayor Lawyer Matteo Ruvolo
