Italy must prepare for a future of chronic drought, headlines Nature, (1) but the Coldirette policies of the 'lake cunning' risk evaporating agricultural waters together with public funding of completely inadequate projects.
The Promoting Committee of the Vetto dam, in the Val d'Enza, on the other hand, continues its public mobilization to create a reservoir suitable for the water needs of agriculture and the population. (2)
It remains to ask - even more so, under elections - what are the political programs of the various camps. Thousands of armchairs and useless ponds or dozens of dams capable of conserving the necessary water and producing hydroelectric energy? #Clean shovels.
1) THE 'LAKES PLAN'
The National Assembly of ANBI - National Association of Italian Reclamations, one of the many centers of power of Coldiretti - announced its 'Plan Laghetti' at the beginning of July 2022:
- 223 projects'definitive and executive, that is, immediately can be set up', starting from Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany and Veneto,
- up to 10.000 reservoirs, all microscopic, to be completed by 2030, circumstances permitting. (3)
1.1) Government support (resigning)
Vincenzo Gesmundo, emperor of agricultural policies in Italy and head of Coldiretti's chiefs, has already entrusted the management of the Laghetti Plan to his former ministerial hierarchs (Alessandro Apolito and Raffaele Borriello). (4) Having himself declared that the six projects in the PNRR 'in essence they are signed at the bottom by Coldiretti'(5,6). It is therefore not surprising to learn that
'Minister Patuanelli he defined the ponds project as 'wonderful' and stated that this assessment 'is an engineer'. He then said that resources and projects must be put into the system and that in any case not everything can be financed by the PNRR because for some works that have not yet started it is not possible to respect the reporting times set for 2026.. ' (7)
1.2) Ponds - puddles. Previous
The former director of ANSA Pierluigi Magnaschi remembers well, in the newspaper Italia Oggi directed by him, that 'there are those (especially a powerful organization of farmers) who have already left, launching a plan for hilly lakes which would be puddles bounded by the land at the service of individual small businesses. ' Mathis organization forgets that
- in the sixties the fashion for hilly lakes had already exploded in Italy, which rose almost everywhere with massive public contributions.
- these ponds, quickly silted up, I am ended up in thin air in the space of a few years, so much so that today in Italy there are no more of them. ' So,
- 'we hope that those who invoke them will read up before continuing in his campaign. ' (8)
1.3) Puddles, impact assessment
The 'Piano Laghetti' of Coldiretti was approved with applause by his loyal Stefano Patuanelli - resigning minister - and Stefano Bonaccini, still in charge of the Emilia-Romagna Region. None of which seems to have considered the impact assessment of the construction of the puddles:
- 40 ponds of 250.000 m3, expected shortly in Emilia-Romagna, can theoretically offer 10 million m3 of water for agricultural use only (not for other civil uses). Where a town of 168 inhabitants such as Reggio Emilia today takes over 37 million m3/ year of groundwater for civil use only, (9)
- the construction of 40 ponds, at an average unit cost of € 7 million, requires an investment of € 280 million, equal to € 28 / m3 of invaded. When a single dam of adequate size and depth (eg Vetto, 100 mln m3 in the project of the Claudio Marcello Hydraulic Engineering Firm, 1987. See note 2) it can have a cost 8-10 times lower, in addition to a return in hydroelectric energy.
1.4) Puddles v. dams
The puddles hills or plains, unlike mountain and / or high valley dams:
- consume enormous tracts of land, in inverse proportion to the depth of the reservoirs,
- expose water to ideal evaporation conditions,
- they are energy-intensive, as they are filled and emptied not by gravity (like dams) but with pumps,
- they do not allow the production of hydroelectric energy,
- they do not contribute to the hydrogeological protection against floods and rivers in flood. (10)
2) EMILIA-ROMAGNA
Emilia-Romagna it has 4,460 million inhabitants plus 20 million tourists every year, with an area of 22.510 km² and a potential volume of water from the large reservoirs of only 113 million square meters (source: Ministry of Infrastructure).
Its agriculture integrates the supply chains of 44 PDO and PGI products - (in primis) Parmigiano Reggiano (PR, RE, MO, BO), Parma Ham and Grana Padano (PC) - and expresses a production value of € 4,5 billion (source Emilia-Romagna Region).
2.1) Large region, small reservoirs
The dam alone today active in Emilia-Romagna, with a flow rate of 30 million m3, was completed in 1982 a Ridracoli (Forlì-Cesena). Its lake, in addition to guaranteeing drinking water to residents and tourists of the Romagna Riviera, has become a destination for naturalistic excursions and ecological water sports.
Poor capacity of residual water collection in the entire region (83 mln m3, in theory) is scattered in small reservoirs, built in the early 900s and neglected for maintenance. Their storage capacity is thus further reduced.
There are no plans for the collection and storage of rainwater, nor is there any news of the programming essential to guarantee the continuity of use of the waters of the Po for agricultural purposes, as required by reg. EU 2020/741. (11)
2.2) Emilia-Romagna, the water diet
The water diet that the governor Stefano Bonaccini wants to impose on Emilia-Romagna in compliance with the 'Laghetti Plan' of Coldiretti and ANBI - 40 puddles shortly, 110 further on, including 3-4 holes and a 'dighetta' in Val d'Enza (v par. 3) - has a noteworthy precedent.
Up there, just by the way, is the name of the hamlet of San Cesario sul Panaro (MO) where € 5,2 million of public money was thrown for a pond, tested in 2009, which no farmer uses. Because the water - if it is not allowed to oxygenate, in the plain with pumps - is stagnant and stinks. (12)
3) VAL D'ENZA, VETTO DAM
The farmers of the Enza valley, above Parma and Reggio Emilia, are largely enrolled in Coldiretti. But they do not wear the ring on their nose like their cows (which feed the Parmigiano Reggiano PDO supply chain) and are therefore furious at an imbecile policy - at a regional, as well as central level - that insists on chatting about a 'dighetta' from 27 million cubic meters (m3).
The Reclamation Consortium Emilia Centrale will shortly receive 3,5 million euros from the Ministry of Infrastructures for the feasibility study of an infrastructure that will cost 300 and will take 10 years but will barely cover a third of the water needs. (13) Two centuries after the first project, 33 years after the suspension of works on the Marcello project, to build the real Vetto dam, with a multifunctional lake of 100 million m3. (2)
3.1) #digadiVetto, environmental impact
The Vetto dam it can be built with a relatively modest barrier thanks to the natural conformation of the Stretta di Vetto, to create a 102 million m reservoir3. The water of the dam - Vetto lake:
- maintains the minimum vital flow (DMV) of the river (3-4 m3/ second), essential for the survival of terrestrial and aquatic animals, as well as the plants found on the banks of the Enza river,
- it allows to maintain biodiversity and promote chlorophyll photosynthesis, sequestrating CO2 to produce oxygen. Their percolation into the subsoil restores the groundwater levels, which have significantly lowered in recent decades.
3.2) #digadiVetto, socio-economic impact
Just a dam worthy of the name - like the 100 million m3 designed for the Stretta di Vetto in the 80s, not even the 27 million m Bonaccini 'dighetta'3 - can allow you to:
- guarantee the resilience to drought of forage crops and stable polyphite meadows of Val D'Enza, the birthplace of Parmigiano Reggiano DOP,
- provide useful hydroelectric energy to at least 140.000 citizens. In addition to the solar energy that could be obtained from the installation of photovoltaic panels (such as in Muttsee, in neighboring Switzerland), (14)
- to offer water with a low salt content, for drinking water uses, at lower costs than current ones and without depleting the underground aquifers. In line with the dir. UE 2084/2020 and the Sustainable Development Goal 6 (# SDG6, Clean Water and Sanitation), (one)
- create value on the territory, also thanks to sustainable tourism that can be developed around the lake in pleasant locations today afflicted by depopulation.
4) DROUGHT EMERGENCY
'Almost all simulations carried out by international bodies lead to the forecast of a further 'tropicalization' of the climate in our latitudes, i.e. the presence of many violent and damaging rain events of relatively short duration with consequent floods and devastating damage, followed by long periods of total dryness.
The construction of some basins of at least 100 million cubic meters each (they are considered small reservoirs) will be indispensable to safeguard the agricultural, drinking water, industrial activities of the Emilian Po Valley and to cope with the increasingly frequent peaks of drought in the coming years'(Eng. Sergio Bandieri. In Montecchio nell'Emilia, RE, 22.6.22).
5) DAMS AND LAKES, NOT POZZANGHERE
Politics it must respond to the needs of the population and of the agri-food chains that feed the country and its economy. All the more so in a historical period that sees food products Made in Italy: one of the very few resources to mitigate a severe trade deficit. Without water, agriculture dies.
We need dams and lakes, not puddles. The start of works to build at least five large reservoirs in Emilia-Romagna, which had been requested in vain for too many years, cannot be postponed. The dam of Lake Vetto (RE, PR), but also those of Castrola (BO), Armorano (PR), Farini (PC), Forlì-Cesena (FC).
6) MOBILIZATION
Tuesday 16.8.22, for the third consecutive year, many citizens and farmers will gather at Taglione di Vetto to mobilize #digadiVetto, #VanghePulite. In order to urgently proceed with the reactivation of the existing project, with six months to update the studies and 4 years for the complete construction of the Vetto Lake Dam. (16)
The mobilization continues, on the territory and also online, with the support of Great Italian Food Trade (GIFT) ed Égalité Onlus, always at the forefront for the affirmation of fundamental human rights and the environment. The crafty people of the lakes are short of breath, as well as heavy.
We will oppose with every legal tool to waste public resources in the farce of puddles.
Dario Dongo
Footnotes
(1) Rising Star. Italy must prepare for a future of chronic drought. Nature Italy. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d43978-022-00090-5. 16.7.22
(2) Dario Dongo. The Vetto dam to save the stable meadows of Parmigiano Reggiano. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 24.8.22
(3) Piano Laghetti, ANBI and Coldiretti announce the first 223 projects already ready for construction. Ruminantia. 7.7.22
(4) Dario Dongo. Public administration, loyalty to the state or to Coldiretti? #Clean shovels. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 27.6.21
(5) Dario Dongo. National action plan for pesticides, sustainable agriculture and PNRR. #Clean shovels. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 4.2.22
(6) Dario Dongo. PAC, the European Commission rejects Italy's National Strategic Plan. #Clean shovels. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 14.4.22
(7) The invaded plan by Coldiretti and Anbi "conquers" the government. The Coldiretti Point. 11.7.22
(8) Pierluigi Magnaschi. Without the construction of new dams, Italy's thirst for water is destined not to subside. Italy Today. 5.7.22
(9) Gabriel Franzini. Drought and water consumption: in Reggio Emilia in 10 years network losses from 20 to 28%. Video. Reggionline. 28.6.22
(10) We recall the 10 million m flooding3 of water from the river Enza in Lentigione (fraction of Brescello, RE), on 12.12.17, with 1.157 displaced persons and over € 105 million in damages. V. 'Flood Lentigione 4 years later: what has been done and what remains to be done'. The newspaper of the Civil Protection. 10.12.21
(11) Dario Dongo, Ylenia Patti Giammello. Agricultural waters and food safety, reg. EU 2020/741. The ABC. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 26.9.21
(12) Gianni Galeotti. The water that exists but is not used: from San Cesario to Fossalta. The Press. 27.6.22
(13) Vetto Dam, "now or never". Reggio Report. 13.4.22,
(14) FV, Axpo launches 2,2 MW "alpine" plant on Muttsee dam. Daily relay. 8.10.22
(15) Dario Dongo, Ylenia Patti Giammello. Drinking water, universal law and the EU directive. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 9.7.21
(16) Luciano Catellani, Jaures Marmiroli. The role of dams. Official of Parma. 5.8.22
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
