A-Infos (en) Italy, Sicilia Libertaria: Drought. Between water shortage and mismanagement - Let's not let our brains desertify (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

There are journalistic articles that could already be entrusted to 
artificial intelligence. Among these there are those who repeat the same 
concepts, 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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