WORLD WORLDWIDE ITALY News Journal Update - (en) Italy, UCADI #179: In the mud (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 Two hours of alluvial rain were enough to submerge the plain from Prato

and Campi Bisenzio to Pistoia with water and mud, inundating land made
impervious by excessive construction, in which the rivers and streams
that run through it were embedded in conducted forced by the narrowing
and subtraction of the riverbeds, of the areas of respect for the
waterways, by a building and urban planning policy which, in order to
gain building areas has gone beyond all rules for the protection of the
territory, making it the third area with the most high land consumption
in Italy.
The Ombrone Pistoiese in Quarrata, the Furba, Bardena, Stella, Bure,
Fermulla streams, as well as the Bisenzio, overflowed. Calenzano, which
has composition basins, was saved but both in Prato, Campi Bisenzio and
Quarrata the rivers overflowed: the embankments essentially held, but
the riverbeds, substantially intubated and narrow in their bed, were not
in able to contain the influx of water. Yet, the land managers we are
talking about should have learned something from the flood that hit
Florence and the same area of the Arno basin in 1966. Instead, if
possible, the situation has worsened and we have continued to build and
cement and we still want to go in this direction, carrying out the
widening of the runway of the Florence airport which has already
contributed so much to waterproofing the territory of this area. If the
project were carried out to please the management clique, another 140
would be added to the existing 100, and all this despite the short
distance and the greater safety guarantees offered by Pisa airport.
Faced with the catastrophic event, there was once again talk of an
absolutely unpredictable storm, but it is not true that the damage
depends only on the exceptional nature of the event because everything
was done to increase the risks, doing exactly the opposite of what
logic, the adoption of necessary precautions, the basin plans, provide
for this type of areas: all of this, in violation of the laws, of the
promises of politicians of all colours, who have stood by and have
actually facilitated the growth pollution and soil sealing.
The choices regarding the location of public services were disastrous,
such as those relating to the concession of areas for industrial
settlements, proof of which is that it was not only the hospitals that
went under water, but a large part of the textile laboratories and
factories of the district that constitute one of the diamond points of
the textile industry in Italy. Not only the Region, the metropolitan
city, the municipal administrations, but also the Arno consortium, which
steals a bribe from the pockets of the inhabitants of the plain which it
redistributes according to clientelistic and without taking into account
that hydraulic/hydrogeological risks are no longer just those of 30
years ago, that its risk projections are no longer adequate to current
situations, persisting in denying or in any case ignoring the effects of
climate change, which would require a revisiting of probabilistic
calculations with "the expansion of the "delta" for the T.R. (return
times) ten-year, thirty-year and two-hundred-year Q(Tr200), with natural
digression of the rivers and streams within their natural riverbeds, and
neighboring areas of respect, obviously with the addition of appropriate
expansion tanks" as has long been required by the Environmentalist
committees of the citizens of the plain which on November 2nd issued a
press release in this regard, warning that the worst is yet to come if
the airport is enlarged and the "planned landfill of Via dell'Osmannoro
with a daily transit of over 30,000 vehicles, right in the vicinity of
the Fosso Reale, which will obviously be affected by the two concrete
barriers (the runway and the anti-noise dune facing the Polo and 12
meters high) can only be the prelude to new disasters."

The sack of Florence

What happened today has distant origins: we must go back to the
beginning of the 1990s, when an entrepreneurial business group of
"communists" (?) and Christian Democrats stormed the city of Florence,
directing its expansion towards the plain , led by the Fiat Fondiaria group.
Opposing the project, which was barely intuited, was a small class union
of the University, the SNU-CGIL, which, although perhaps unconsciously,
fought the battle against the building speculation that used the
University, but was defeated, left alone in the face of too large and
strong adversaries, with the sole support of the Chamber of Labor of
Florence.

A careful analysis of the building policy of the University and the city
was produced and widely disseminated. There was a temporary setback in
the project which, however, soon restarted, identifying a young and
unscrupulous politician of Catholic origin who, elected President of the
Province, ascended the Municipality and at the same time the Party until
he became its secretary and then landed the Presidency of the Council.
The choice to expand the city into the plain led to the crisis of the
then city PCI and the resignation of its entire leadership, required the
intervention of the then national secretary of the party who blocked the
project for a short time, but ended with victory of speculators. At the
same time, the "sack of Florence" served as a springboard for the rapid
rise of a hedonistic adventurer who, despite having fallen victim to his
egocentrism, managed to ensure the success of the operation, the effects
of which we still collectively suffer on the whole territory.
New political balances were formed in the city and the relocation of the
University to Novoli and the Sesto plain was carried out; the students
were outsourced like the inhabitants of the city, expelled from the
historic center.
At the same time, the airport was enlarged, extending the impossible
runway, narrow in a valley with already very strong building
construction. Since then, speculation in Florence and in the plain has
made giant strides: the construction of the tramway, the eradication of
the city's greenery, the upheaval of its current urban and road
structure, are the unclean fruits of that choice which attracted and
continues to attract capital speculative activities in the city, of such
an extent that perhaps we need to go back to the destruction of the
walls and the investment of the Piedmontese in Florence in the
post-unification years to find a
speculation of such an extent.
Alongside the urban transformation of the city, it was inevitable that a
profound change developed in its economic and social structure, which
saw the transformation of the historic centers into fast food
restaurants and hotel hospices for (rich) tourists which is the Florence
of today. The same could be said of the other numerous speculations in
which the city is currently involved, such as those concerning the
Leopolda area, the Cascine, the former tobacco factory, the
restructuring of the San Salvi area, and yet it is in the profits, fruit
of these enterprises, which lies the economic strength of a well-known
actor in Italian politics, Matteo Renzi, who as President of the
Province first, then as Mayor, and again as secretary of the PD and as
prime minister has drawn the maximum profit from all this and laying the
roots of his personal and political fortunes. Next to and around him is
a group of maintenance workers who have now managed to attract capital
from the international market to continue and if possible intensify
speculation: all this while the subsoil of Florence, with its extremely
delicate balance, is being drilled for the construction of the railway
link , with possible disasters on the static stability of the territory
and dangers for the aquifers.
Today. the sack of the plain continues, bringing with it the interests
of small entrepreneurs who have occupied the areas bordering rivers and
streams, building their warehouses there, with a frenzied building
development, which has scattered the inhabitants of the metropolitan
city across the plain, so that Florence could transform into a
receptacle for hotels and tourist activities that leave the city empty
at night, open to tourists, but where Florentines no longer live. It is
therefore not surprising if today nature takes revenge, remembering that
rivers and streams have the right to flow, that water needs to fall and
that, if their course is regimented and restricted, water, a way to
flow, he must find it. The struggle of the environmentalist committees
of the plain, although it is generous and has led courageous battles and
carried out micro environmental recovery interventions which have
improved the quality of life and have been some obstacle to the
excessive power of speculators, has not managed to break down the wall
of connivance in support of building, territorial and environmental
speculation.

Missed help

Having said this briefly about the causes, in the face of the disaster
and the sudden flooding, the help and assistance of the national civil
protection was lacking, leaving the burden of intervention solely to the
local forces and especially to the volunteers. The inhabitants of Prato
and Campi Bisenzio had to roll up their sleeves and shovel mud and
debris, as the inhabitants of Emilia-Romagna had to do.

To demonstrate the importance of the presence of a factory in the area,
with the men and women workers lining up on class positions, the GKN
site and its men and women workers were one of the nerve centers of the
aid given by the volunteers. Here brooms and shovels were collected,
here the teams were organised, here the rescue efforts were coordinated
with the influx of young inhabitants of the plain and anyone who wanted
to find a point of reference to act and help: the greatest difficulties
came from the impossibility to dispose of the water that has accumulated
in the face of waterproofed ground that does not absorb anything and
with clogged and insufficient pipes. It was necessary to wait six days
before a negligible number of soldiers arrived in the countries covered
by water to lend a hand and the intervention numbers tell us how
marginal their help was.
In this institutional void it must also be said that another point of
reference for the organization of relief efforts aimed above all at the
people and assets of the approximately 9,000 Chinese immigrant families
living in Prato and the surrounding areas. These people turned to
"Ramunion Italia" - a civil protection-type structure, in which both
Chinese and Italians are registered - which depends on the Chinese
government, also because not many Chinese know the language and
therefore are able to send the request for help to 112. The association
sent its SOS on WeChat - the social media similar to WhatsApp used in
China - which from there gave instructions to Italy for the sending of
food, water and rescue interventions with inflatable boats; it is
presumable that, given that the Chinese know little of the language, are
not experts in carrying out bureaucratic procedures, but are endowed
with a spirit of community and solidarity, it will happen with the
arrival of the refreshments. It is a safe bet that grants, low-rate
loans and aid to rebuild the destroyed laboratories, stocks, flooded
warehouses and even to provide support to the many illegal workers who
work in these companies will come first and exclusively from Beijing,
rather and by the Italian government, thus accelerating the takeover of
the Chinese and their partners in the textile activities with the
absorption of the companies to be rebuilt.
As for the compensation, it is safe to bet that the aid will be slow in
coming, as in Emilia Romagna and in the other flooded areas also
because, let's face it, "many administrations are red", but for how much
longer?

R.P.

https://www.ucadi.org/2023/11/26/nel-fango/
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