Trebisacce’s Parched Landscape: A Desiccated City Struggles for Relief Amid Council Discord

TREBISACCE. Water crisis: it is talked about and argued in the city council but the problem of the lack of water in homes, thanks to the prolonged drought which has dried up the source of the municipal aqueduct, is far from being solved. In fact, the rationing of the precious liquid continues, while the municipal executive, from what emerged during the municipal council, is committed on several fronts to finding other forms of supply. Which, according to what was said by the Majority Councilor Fatima Ruggio and reiterated by the mayor Franco Mundo, by first cleaning and draining the filter tunnel that feeds the municipal aqueduct, by having specialized companies dig new wells to place alongside the existing ones as a remedy temporary to the problem but, considering that climate changes risk projecting the critical issues over time, neglecting, perhaps, solutions of wider scope and perspective to be shared, given that the water shortage does not only concern Trebisacce, with the other municipalities of the District. Summoned to give answers to the questions presented mostly by the Minoranza councilor Antonio Aurelio, in particular the one relating to the water crisis on which Aurelio asked what strategies the executive was adopting to deal with the critical issues relating to the water crisis, the city council recorded for the first time a lively and at times edgy debate. In their interventions, following the clarifications entrusted to councilor Fatima Ruggio on the remedies adopted to deal with the water shortage, the Minority councilors who spoke in succession Antonio Aurelio, Antonio Cerchiara, Francesca Paolino and Mariateresa Petta, albeit with different sensitivity and tones ( only Aurelio declared himself satisfied with the explanations received), made critical remarks to the Majority, accusing it of not having involved the Minority and of having neglected to entrust the task of digging the wells to a hydro-geological study capable of geo-locating the areas of intervention, with the result, according to the Minority, of failing to make choices and wasting budget resources. At this point Mayor Franco Mundo intervened and carefully listed all the attempts made and those in the pipeline to tackle the water crisis and alleviate citizens’ inconveniences: cleaning up to 12 meters deep and the functional restoration of the filter tunnel the flow rate of which, according to the mayor, due to the prolonged drought has reduced from 20 l/s to only 7 l/s; the restoration of pre-existing wells, the attempts made, not with the support of diviners as has been said around, but with the collaboration of Sirio and specialized companies to dig new wells which, however, proved not very generous due to the prolonged drought and, finally , the distribution of water to the homes of families in difficulty through the Misericordia, the Civil Protection and other private companies. In addition to the concrete interventions to deal with the prolonged drought, mayor Mundo, with an eye towards the future, said that, in collaboration with ArriCal, a new mapping of the municipal water network is being carried out and, during an operational meeting, it is It was agreed with the Commissioner of the Single Consortium of Calabria Giacomo Giovinazzo that, if the crisis were to extend over time, the Consortium will make available a sufficient supply of “raw” water from the Sinni reservoir, obviously to be made drinkable to make it usable. These are the solutions put in place so far and those with a broader perspective, among which what is perhaps missing is the hypothesis, actually a little surreal and futuristic, of creating, in synergy with all the municipalities in the district, a new supra-municipal aqueduct capable of to support and integrate that of Eiano. It’s a shame that no one has thought of channeling the PNRR funds in this direction, of which, as is feared, a large part will perhaps be unpaid due to a lack of projects. It is well known, in fact, that the Lucanian side of the Pollino is so rich in water that, in addition to feeding the large Sinni dam, it manages to quench the thirst of Basilicata and a large part of the Puglia region, while the Calabrian side of the Pollino, from this point from sight, it is stingy and not very generous, but only because it has so far been unexplored, but it could hide enough water to meet the needs of parched and drought-prone territories such as the Upper Ionian. And not only that.
Pino La Rocca