In Sicily the water crisis is not taking a step back, citizens are invited to save water, directing individual daily behaviors towards a civic and correct use of the drinking water resource, and even the limited water resources intended for the irrigation of agricultural land are at risk. These are also the consequences resulting fromdrought emergency and the island’s aging water infrastructure networks are playing their part, exacerbating a problem that has persisted for decades.
The Region is working to make the best use of the resources available for agriculture and drinking purposes, also trying to find new ones. Small, simple measures that are important, but at the same time not sufficient to support these two major emergencies. The availability of drinking water does not extend everywhere, there are areas, especially in the Nisseno and Ennese areas, which have a particular shortage of water and where there are already significant restrictions in terms of supply, around 35 percent reduction in supply of water quantities. A reduction which translates into a form of fairly heavy water rationing and which has been carried out with the aim of prolonging the availability of water within the reservoirs and not leaving the cities dry, waiting for a series of works that are substitutes for the unavailability of water that Sicily is currently experiencing. The problem then has repercussions on the ability of local authorities to address critical issues. The service management model carried out by the municipalities has not paid off. In areas where there is no manager, governance is deficient and the municipalities will hardly be able to manage the emergency in optimal terms, difficulties linked to budget problems and those of tax collection.
All dossiers on the Region’s table and to which the Schifani government is called upon to give a response. Anci Sicilia addresses this broad topic that involves Sicilian municipalities who are first affected by the water emergency and whose skills are reduced. The latter directly experience the inconveniences linked to the rationing, and sometimes lack, of water.
The general secretary of the Association of Municipalities, Mario Alvanoin fact, explained that a specific investment would be needed which is rarely talked about, but which could be long-term: the strengthening of the organizational structure of the territorial water assemblies – ATI – the subjects who play a significant role in the territory regarding strategic choices. Starting from the definition of the Area Plan and the choice of the manager. From an administrative point of view, the direction should be reversed.
“Water management is a delicate issue and regulations alone are not enoughwater resource governance activities must be physically organised. From purification, to systems, to the possibility of avoiding or limiting the risk of drought, which will probably arise every year. These structures must be strengthened and this is only possible through huge investments that serve to initiate all the actions to fix the water network, as a strategic infrastructure. We must ask ourselves who carries out the actions on a daily basis, there are local entities that have good governance on an administrative level, thanks to the presence of specific figures who know how to communicate with the managers. In the Palermo area, I must say that Amap, with all its problems, has a certain experience and technical ability to deal with critical issues. Where we do not have these realities, but there is the private sector that does its part, we must have a structure that represents the municipalities of the territory and that knows how to have its say from a technical point of view, which can protect the interests of that reality, reaching then to the assignments to the managers. I believe that an investment must also be made in terms of ordinary resources. It means allowing those called upon to manage this very strategic sector to make use of the professionalism to carry everything forward”.
Making an analysis of the nine ATI, corresponding to the number of Sicilian Provinces, unfortunately Sicily is not entirely covered, which is why it becomes essential to invest in ordinary resources. And investments are attracted “thanks to the operational capacity to plan, design, activities that can only be carried out if there are human resources specialized in intercepting funding and bringing home the results. In some areas of the island, the water network presents frightening problems in terms of water leaks. Among the strategic choices that must be made is the strengthening of the ATI with a specific contribution on the ordinary part aimed at the total strengthening of these entities, through the hiring of professionals who are indispensable and to avoid asking individual municipalities for contributions, already proven by other daily difficulties. In Sicily, I remember, that there are hundreds of municipalities between failure and pre-failure”.
There is a plan. The purchase of new tankers in municipalities in crisis, the regeneration of existing wells and the reactivation of abandoned ones, the strengthening of pumping systems and pipelines, but more structural operations are needed, given the fact that Sicily is the Italian region which records the highest number of water losses. An online dispersion of 52.5 percent according to Istat data and which in some areas even exceeds 70 percent.
The critical issues of the municipalities are also linked to the governance of another major emergency: fires. Even on this front, that of prevention, there is a need for economic resources and institutional synergy. The flames that broke out last summer are not easily forgotten and the risk that a new drama could occur in Sicily cannot be underestimated. Even in this case, is it just a lack of number of operational units (and therefore more men in the field), or should the whole system be implemented better? In addition to resources and men, timely prevention is always necessary secure the land. However, prevention is not sufficient given the vastness of the city which then makes it difficult, if not impossible, for the municipality to carry out checks on private individuals to ensure their land is safe from brushwood and flammable materials.
“We cannot call what happens every year an emergency. When a phenomenon presents itself punctually, then we must change our approach. When you realize that municipalities have experienced difficulties over the years, it is not enough to write a letter with the actions to be taken, you need to ask yourself about the problem. The theme of fires concerns a transversality of actions in the different seasons that have to do with hydrogeological instability, with landslides, which impact the territory and which constitute a pre-condition for the onset of fires. We need a system that looks at the control of the territory in all aspects. Meanwhile – continues Alvano – Our civil protection system must be strengthened, and it is no longer possible to do so based only on the organizational capacity of individual municipalities. There are over 210 small municipalities under 5 thousand inhabitants and very small municipalities. Then there are depopulation problems and let’s add that in these small municipalities farmers are missing those who live in the countryside and who control the territory, we have a land ownership problem because a lot of land is abandoned. There is great lack of interest in some areas and many are abandoned, others are more attractive. Agriculture is closely linked to the issue of fires because having a territorial presence of man means guaranteeing observation of that area and in some cases also prevention actions. The issue of the specific competences of municipalities must be managed with a regional or broad territorial approach. If we think about the operations related to the fire register, the compliance with the ordinances by the mayors, these do not work if conceived on a territorial basis. It is difficult to set up an operations center. The tools are there, but it is difficult to activate them. You need a cintegrated operation on multiple institutional levels”.
