Zaia signs the ordinance against water waste

The president of the Veneto Region, Luca Zaia, today signed a further ordinance relating to the lack of water availability in the area, containing regional actions to protect the water resource. “We are still at an alert level that does not require imposing rationing, a point we hope not to reach – said the governor – With this ordinance, I intend to make citizens and all institutions aware of the need not to waste water in a formal act no way, intervening, among other measures, in the irrigation of the gardens, closing the wells with continuous flow, avoiding waste in the waters for public use”.

The measures provided for by the ordinance

As for the agricultural aspect, adds Zaia, «unfortunately we know that due to an outdated irrigation network, 40 to 60% of the water available at the origin arrives. It is no coincidence that I have already said on several occasions that a real “Marshall Plan” is needed for the construction of new hydraulic infrastructures, some plan, as far as the Veneto is concerned, we are already at work ».

The ordinance provides, among other things:

• to instruct the mayors, having consulted the consortia, to urgently activate information campaigns on the prudent use of water resources
• to delegate to the Soil and Coast Defense Directorate every effort to ensure sufficient revitalization of the canals
• to adopt measures to contain withdrawals from groundwater for non-priority uses
• to promote information campaigns for the judicious use of the water resource aimed in particular at holders of concessions for self-supply for non-priority uses
• to prepare contingency plans for the drinking supply such as interconnection of networks, supply with tankers, interventions to reduce losses
• to verify the possibility of orienting the management of reservoirs by promoting accumulation; to schedule, by the Delta Po Consortium, the preparation of the barrier to the ascent of the salt wedge on the Adige river
• to introduce the obligation of periodic qualitative analyzes of the water drawn from the wells to verify that, in the face of the current water shortage, the potability requirements for human consumption are guaranteed.