The great heat puts the antiques and porous national water network under stress. If the real drought has not yet arrived, the time to act is now. Anbi offers some solutions.
Those who accompanied this beginning of summer were hot hot days, and more voices already speak of drought. If it is true that the emergency concerns the whole continent, certainly the great heat is putting bare again one of the endemic problems of our countryespecially in certain regions, we are talking about that relating to water supply.
If the high temperatures generate disservices of all kinds and put pressure on the country’s water reserves, it is also true that The old age and porosity of the infrastructures contributes decisively to acute a problem that should have already been solved for some time.
To speak more in detail of this situation, helping to make some clarity, is Massimo GarganoGeneral manager ofNational Association of Reclamation, Irrigation and Fondiar improvements (ANBI). Heard by PanoramaGargano explains that as regards the level of reservoirs and water reserves “the great heat of these days begins to record a slight lowering to northern Italy, but does not worry”.
What worries, and not a little, is the “level of water suffering is achieving important levels where the emergency has always been in some way present, I think part of Puglia, Basilicata, north-western Sardinia and Sicily».
To confirm that the water distribution network of drinking water is a big national problem is also the general manager of Anbi, “The water infrastructure in Italy are absolutely obsolete», Especially in the aqueducts for drinking use, where not by chance” the greatest losses are recorded “. It is a problem that requires “really strong investments, and investments”.
One of the areas most affected by disservices in the water distribution network for drinking use is the province of Enna. Here the disservices began last summer, with the inhabitants forced for months to see a fundamental primary asset such as raised water and available only at pre -established times a few times a week.
The winter rains, and above all the restoration interventions of the Ancipa dam and the water distribution system, have meant that, according to the June data of theBasin Authority of the Hydrographic District of Sicilythe reserves of the dam have returned to have almost maximum water volumes (25 million cubic meters out of 30). Beyond drought, work and modernization repay.
More generally, i data collected by the Basin Authority on the levels of the reservoirs in the region, updated in June of this year, They show overall a better situation than that of last year, albeit worse than that of the 2022-2023 season. Not surprisingly, the Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA) indication Sicily as the only water district with State of “high” severity.
Criticality are undoubtedly present, but, at least for the moment, they have not reached the gravity level of last year (in the same period). If it is true that temperatures are increasing and that the risk of drought not far away, it is also true that crying on you will not help to cope with the situation. From this point of view, Anbi plays a very important role, «together with Coldiretti, we proposed a National plan of multifunctional water basins To increase the ability to retain rain waters in the area: in Italy we are stopped at 11%, while in Spain and France they are over 30%». Another aspect “It is the realization on the rivers of a new technology, similar to the “Mose” of Venice But obviously on a very reduced scale, which slow down the rise of marine waters along the rivers and therefore avoid the salinization of the territories “.
The scope of the problem is such that to be faced properly a European solution is needed. From this point of view, Europe’s response has been completely inadequate, “EU’s Water Resilience Strategy is an enunciation of good principles which, however, do not translate into actions», As stated by the director Gargano.
In addition to the drought (at the moment not yet arrived) and to the rise in temperatures, Italy is also and above all the victim of unsuitable and inhale infrastructures, a problem first of all cultural and only later of political will. The Anbi initiatives and the works carried out on the Ancipa dam, however, show that the work bears its fruits.
