About forty Lombard and Piedmontese farmers blocked the excavator in charge of reducing the waters of the Naviglio Lagosco, a canal fed by the Ticino that bathes the lower Novarese up to a part of the Lomellina, in the Pavia area. “An operation that would make us lose more water by diverting it along the Ticino to favor fish fauna – explained Antonio Strada, vice president of Confagricoltura Lombardia, one of the promoters of the protest -. In practice, they want us to die in a moment of maximum emergency. “.
Drought, the rice paddy war breaks out between Piedmont and Lombardy: “You steal our water”
by Diego Longhin
In recent days, the East Sesia Irrigation Consortium has decided to send an excavator to Galliate, on the Piedmontese side, near Novara and the Treccione hydroelectric plant, to open the filarola, a kind of mobile dam made with large stones and gravel with the consequence to let less water go in the Naviglio and more in the Ticino. According to Strada, which cites a recent study by the ASL, the fish would be protected even with only 7 cubic meters of water instead of the 14 that this operation would guarantee.
War of the rice fields, Cirio’s warning: “Do not cut off Piedmont’s water to waste it elsewhere”
by Mariachiara Giacosa
Faced with the peaceful blockade of farmers, mostly of rice, whoever drove the excavator was forced to leave. Carabinieri and Digos also arrived but everything went quietly, this time bringing together Piedmontese and Lombard protagonists in the last weeks of what has been called the “war for water” during a drought never seen before. “What will happen if the excavator comes back tomorrow? We will try to oppose it again” assures Strada, who asks to stop the works and keep the filarola “as it is for fifteen days, the time to save what we can of the crops”.