The plight of the bad weather in Italy, which caused disastrous floods in Emilia Romagna, has once again turned the spotlight on the fragility of the national territory, periodically scourged by bad weather – linked to climate change – and damaged perhaps more than necessary due to the lack of a structural plan for the defense against adverse events. In light of this, the Minister of Civil Protection Nello Musumeci announced a provision that by mid-2024 will limit the damage from hydrogeological instability. Here are the main points of the plan.
A different engineering approach
“A different engineering approach is needed”, explained Musumeci, pointing out that by now the process of tropicalisation of the climate has also reached Italy and that, therefore, the hydraulic infrastructures must be rethought accordingly. “What happened in Emilia Romagna had already happened in Ischia and could happen in all other areas of the country,” said the minister.
Control room
The technicians of the control room on hydrogeological instability will answer to a special commissioner for the water crisis, who will collect the reports of local technicians on the specific situation of each territory to identify the main weaknesses of the various areas of Italy and decide the interventions to be implemented. Three levels of planning, short, medium and long term, will be established for interventions according to the seriousness of the situation, and operations will be carried out on both the drought and flood fronts.
Regional dams
“Dozens of new regional dams will be needed: they haven’t been built for forty years, – warns Musumeci. – If we have imagined a rainwater distribution network in a town capable of absorbing one thousand millimeters in twelve months, we must now think of a water collection system which will have to absorb five hundred millimeters in forty-eight hours”. We need to think, the minister points out, of a system that allows rainwater to reach the sea as soon as possible, channeling it towards dry rivers and streams, which would be ready to welcome the water that has long since disappeared from their beds. But for this it is necessary to intervene on the primary and secondary river network.
The drought
Another front on which to intervene is that of drought, one of the indirect causes of floods. A soil that is too dry in fact tends to harden and become impermeable, creating difficulties for the acceptance and drainage of rainwater, which then flows over it like a river flowing into inhabited centres.
Water distribution networks
“When it arrives, the water must be stored, – points out Musumeci. – I am thinking of the construction of basins, but also of small company reservoirs with the help of the Regions. It is also necessary to redevelop the urban distribution networks to avoid losses (in some cases they are even 50%) so that there is no more waste. And say enough to the use of drinking water for agriculture, because in these cases even purified water is fine”. “The goal therefore will be to revisit the entire territorial structure and infrastructures by collaborating with the other dicasteries, a project that can be implemented” within eight months or a year “, he concludes.