There are journalistic articles that could already be entrusted to
artificial intelligence. Among these there are those who repeat the sameconcepts, the same data, the same interviews every year. And
unfortunately, this group of articles includes those on drought and
water shortages in Sicily. Reading the dramatic reports and the terrible
testimonies on the absence of water we are immediately struck by a
feeling of despondency: they are stories that we have heard a thousand
times, because we persist in this repeated Groundhog Day while our
island is desertified, literally and symbolically? In the analysis of
this unfortunate 2024, which we will probably consign to history as the
worst water crisis in Sicily, a division must first be made. Because
drought, understood as a lack of rainfall, is one thing, water
management is another.
The absence of rain in Sicily is one of the most evident effects of
climate change. For a year and a half, every month at a global level
there has been a record of highest temperatures, which is basically the
same time frame in which the drought developed on the island: already in
2023 the lack of the traditional "rainy season" in the months of October
and November it had reduced water supplies for the spring of 2024, which
in turn proved to be less rainy than usual. In February, something that
had never happened before, the region requested and obtained a state of
natural disaster due to drought. And going even further back in time: we
have already forgotten it but the record temperature in Europe was
recorded in Floridia, in the province of Syracuse, in 2021, with the
record figure of 48.8 degrees centigrade. Since 2003, rainfall on the
island has decreased by more than 40%.
In short, all the alarming signs were already there. Yet no mobilization
on these issues has started from Sicily. Neither on climate adaptation,
i.e. the reduction of damage and inconvenience caused by global warming,
nor on mitigation, i.e. the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions which
then cause the increase in temperatures. There will be less and less
water in Sicily. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) has predicted that heat waves and droughts will
increasingly plague the Mediterranean in the coming decades. Already in
2030, i.e. in just a few years, a third of the Sicilian areas will take
on desert features. Faced with such epochal transformations, it is clear
that an overthrow of the status quo is needed. The population feels it
first-hand, perhaps this is not yet entirely clear to the movements and
fighting groups. Reformist activism, including that of environmentalist
associations themselves, has been struggling in recent months to
identify solutions that can improve water management. But they do not
take into account an essential fact: these are hypotheses that those in
power know very well. Regional and ministerial documents are full of
indications in this sense.
Is it really necessary to remember that in Sicily more than 50% of
public water is wasted due to worn out pipes dating back to the 1950s?
Is it really necessary to remember that of the 26 dams controlled by the
region, some have still been tested for more than 50 years, and
therefore end up releasing water as soon as a certain threshold is
exceeded (less than half)? Is it really necessary to remember that the
watermakers wanted by Cuffaro lasted just a handful of years because
they were poorly designed, energy-intensive and very expensive? In our
opinion it is not even a question, as Repubblica Palermo recently did,
of pointing out that in 17 years Sicilian politics has had three and a
half billion euros available to address and resolve the problem of
drought. On water there are even more pressing issues to address, which
instead are always left in the background. For example, the so-called
"tank truck owners", those for whom every water crisis is a business,
with people forced to pay two bills, the public one and the private one.
Sicily is full of wells and reserves which however are managed in a
mafia and para-mafia manner, with the waterways being robbed and dried
up. Or we can mention the precious water reserves that were given to
multinationals in exchange for the usual bribes to the territories.
There are two most striking examples (but many could be given): the
water of the Sicani Mountains which was sold in 1999 to Nestlè, which
then resells it to us as Acqua Vera; the Ragoleto dam, managed by Eni
which prefers to use it for its own plants in Gela rather than give it
to farmers in Nisse.
The last example of urgency that can no longer be postponed concerns bad
habits. And be careful, here we don't want to blame individual people,
we are far from any moralistic approach, but there are some disasters
that are no longer acceptable: from the use of drinking water to
irrigate fields or for sanitary purposes to swimming pools scattered in
in the homes of rich people or in hotels (often with the sea just a
stone's throw away). There is no shortage of fighting fronts. As long as
we know how to deal with harmful immobilisms and dangerous and at the
same time convenient balances. Because a people reduced to thirst is a
people that will continue to delegate. On the other hand, this year's
dry summer risks being only the prelude to further worsening. Alongside
the terrible scenes of the drying up of Lake Pergusa and the bullshit
about the absence of tourists - defections which nevertheless occurred -
a concern from the region's technicians must be added: if at the
beginning of July the reservoirs were at a capacity of 25% , it goes
without saying that the problem risks worsening in September. So far,
water has mainly been lacking in the agricultural sector, with the
Madonie sector having to, or being forced, to give up water to quench
the thirst of the city of Palermo and a province which alone is home to
around a million people. But at this rate the dry taps could also extend
to the Sicilian capital. With consequences one can imagine. We will need
to be ready for this and future waterless seasons to come.
Andrea Turco
https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/
_________________________________________
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