A-Infos (en) Italy, Sicilie Libertaria #452: THE WATER CRISIS IN AGRIGENTO (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

On September 29, 2019, the ATI (governing body) represented by the 43 
mayors of the province of Agrigento, met in assembly and unanimously 
resolved the public management of the integrated water service. ---- 
Those present in the room rejoiced and the joy of having won the battle 
was immense. Today, after 2 years of management, taking stock we can say 
that AICA (management body) has failed. ---- The reasons that led to the 
failure are various. First of all, we must say that, despite this, we 
are still in support of public water. The initial capital with which 
AICA started was EUR20,000, a paltry sum for the company, defined as the 
largest and most important in the province of Agrigento. An organic 
plant made up of 300 employees whose expenditure item exceeded all the 
others. As soon as she took office, she increased the tariff by 6%, 
justifying it with the high cost of energy. The Sicily region intervened 
to help AICA with Musumeci, proposing a loan of EUR10 million repayable 
in 5 years. Sic! He could have paid them out as a non-repayable grant. 
But no! That Musumeci who in Rome saw 31 projects rejected, including 
projects for water networks: EUR350 million lost, no short, medium or 
long-term projects realized. However, he continued anyway and with the 
drought worse than before. His activity was limited to small maintenance 
interventions such as repairing the faults in the leaky network.

EUR50 million lost for having submitted late (deadline 12/31/2023) the 
project that finally included the construction of the new water network. 
In most municipalities the payment is a lump sum, considered illegal by 
Italian law. On the horizon, the installation of 22,000 hydrometric 
devices, or meters, is slow to arrive. No planning for the emptying, 
de-graveling and mud removal of the dams. If they had been tested and 
cleaned in time as established by Legislative Decree 3 April 2006 n.152 
paragraph 2 art. 114, today we would have had sufficient water reserves 
to deal with the drought.

The dramatic data as of 09.20.24 are the following: the Sicilian 
reservoirs contain 8%, equivalent to 60 million cubic meters of water 
out of 750 million cubic meters that they should normally contain. 
Continuing like this, if it doesn't rain, despite the rationing and 
extended shifts, according to estimates we will get to November. Is the 
rain not coming to blame? Climate change has certainly had an impact. 
But the real culprits of this serious water crisis are the politicians, 
first and foremost the mayors and regional parliamentarians, who have 
always misgoverned the tormented Sicily.

No initiative by AICA and ATI to delegitimize the eight mountain 
municipalities which, despite not having the requirements, have had the 
direct management of the water service recognized by the Sicily region 
art.147 D.L. 152/06. These municipalities are located along the Sicani 
mountains in whose area the largest spring water of the Agrigento area 
is concentrated. They have water every day and pay much less than the 
others that are part of AICA. Inequality and disparity reign supreme. 
The most painful note concerns Siciliacque SpA which sells water at 
69.60 cents per cubic meter to AICA. A company wanted by the then 
Cuffaro government. Before 2004, it was the EAS (Sicilian water 
authority) that supplied the various land reclamation consortia and the 
rates were not as high as they are today. In the municipality where I 
live, the rate was EUR110 per year. Since 2013, increase after increase, 
today with AICA we have reached EUR448 without guaranteeing the minimum 
of 80 cubic meters per year per user.

According to some calculations, the debt accrued by AICA towards 
Siciliacque amounts to EUR19,096,160. For 75%, the largest shareholder 
of Siciliacque until a few years ago was the French multinational 
Veolia, whose share was acquired for EUR115 million by Italgas. This 
enormous sum of money should make us reflect a lot on the big business 
that revolves around water at the expense of Sicilian citizens, and it's 
time to rebel! We fought to have public water and today we must fight to 
have water and pay less for it. Since April, when the state of emergency 
was declared, the Sicily region and its civil protection staff have done 
little or nothing. They limited themselves to saying that they had 
identified 13 disused wells to reactivate, which would have provided 265 
l/s. We are in the dark and we know nothing if what was said actually 
happened. Then in August, the Prefect, in the presence of all the mayors 
and the head of civil protection, issued the order to immediately find 
new sources of supply and requisition the wells. Today, the harsh 
reality is only one: the dams are empty and the population is without 
water. In the eyes of the world, Sicily is making a poor impression! 
With the tankers and the drums. At this point we have become an appendix 
of North Africa with the exact same problems.

The fake G7 agriculture in theory would like to solve the problem of 
hunger and drought in the world but in reality it continues to safeguard 
the interests of multinationals such as Bayer-Monsanto and large-scale 
food distribution. Ignoring small farms, the real producers of food. 
Returning to the water crisis. Within AICA, the Consulta was established 
from the beginning, made up of representatives of associations and 
committees that had fought for public water in their time. The Consulta, 
on the side of the citizens, has always promptly reported the failures 
of AICA and ATI to the competent super-organs. But nothing has changed. 
Indeed, in a meeting, with all its arrogance, AICA prevented the 
intervention of a member of the Consulta.

In this serious crisis, the population of Agrigento expressed its 
dissent with two street demonstrations shouting: "WE WANT WATER", one in 
April and the other in August, in which thousands of people participated.

The protest continued with a permanent sit-in in front of the town hall 
of Agrigento organized by the Codacons association and supported by 
several local associations, which began on September 4th.

Proposals. - They say that for the future we must adapt and live with 
climate change. But they do not say that those who hold political and 
economic power must begin to change the policy of land management 
starting from public spending, according to the real needs of citizens. 
There is a lot of waste of public money for works that Sicilian citizens 
do not need. The bridge over the Strait on which they would like to 
spend EUR 14 billion is a huge useless expense. The main objective is to 
prevent its construction and to devote at least the billion EUR of the 
co-owned Sicily region to the resolution of the serious water crisis 
that has affected the entire Sicilian territory.

- The single scope of the water service per province would allow access 
to the PNRR funding. In Agrigento, considering the eight municipalities 
that have direct management, the scopes would be nine, therefore zero 
funding.

- Termination of the forty-year contract with Siciliacque and return to 
the management of EAS.

Installation of meters, so that water is paid for on consumption, the 
more you consume the more you pay. Induce savings and not waste.

The construction of the hillside lakes, the municipalities of Sciara and 
Cerda teach.

Good functioning of the purifiers for the recovery of wastewater for 
agricultural use.

- Construction of new pipelines with zero waste.

Cleaning and de-sludging of the dams: now that they are empty the 
operation is feasible.

More democracy within AICA. The Consulta must be listened to and taken 
into consideration.

The implementation of the aforementioned proposals (given that 
politicians are deaf and hard to want to change) presupposes a 
considerable amount of work by the movement, aimed at raising awareness 
among citizens. Times have certainly changed and it is no longer like it 
used to be when we occupied the town halls. Perhaps because there are 
fewer of us due to the continuous depopulation caused by the lack of work?

We were reported because we defended the territory and the environment 
and even the Digos came to check on us in our workplace. Despite the 
intimidations perpetrated by the power that wanted to silence us, we 
never stopped, we were not afraid and in response we always undertook 
our battle for justice and freedom. Therefore, our challenge to power 
continues. Now and more than before.

For the historical citizen committee

Enrico Caldara

http://sicilialibertaria.it
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