"Drought? The problem must be solved with science"

The impact of drought on a lake: We are looking for a reservoir to be built in the province

By Michele Gambini * Last Friday, the “Apriti Pesaro” program organized a conference on water resources in the region, which in our opinion is interesting and important because it highlights some of the weaknesses in infrastructure – widely known – and cultural weaknesses. Concord is the analysis: the rivers of our land have flows that are immediately sensitive to the precipitation regime, and the apparent diffusion in the supply of surface rivers’ water exposes us to the great diversity of the flow of our waterways which increases in summer and is grossly inadequate. So much so that several times in the past…

By Michelle Gambini*

Last Friday, “Apriti Pesaro” organized a conference on water resources in the region, which in our opinion is interesting and important because it highlights some weaknesses in infrastructure – widely known – and cultural weaknesses.

Concord is the analysis: the rivers of our land have flows that are immediately sensitive to the precipitation regime, and the apparent diffusion in the supply of surface rivers’ water exposes us to the great diversity of the flow of our waterways which increases in summer and is grossly inadequate. So much so that the logistical capacity of Aset and Mms several times in the last summer has “masked” the crisis by distributing costly and polluting water by tanker to the most vulnerable areas.

The few existing tanks are seeing their capacity significantly reduced due to the landfill phenomenon which they have not been able to handle over the years. Water systems in the entire region lose a third of the water entered with unacceptable waste of resources.

For this reason, the intervention of the regional advisor was appreciated, who indicated that the priority, before thinking about new water storage infrastructures, is undoubtedly the two mentioned topics: maintenance of networks and cleaning of reservoirs.

The real strategic question remains in the background: a region that easily enters into a supply crisis in the dry season needs to greatly increase its water-harvesting capacity in the rainy season, when streamflow allows for continuous storage of water resources.

If this perspective brings everyone in agreement, the direction in which infrastructure should be built is by no means unanimous. It is known that Ato had proposed to the Ministry a reservoir of about 15 million cubic meters on the Candigliano River, but with great intellectual honesty, the director of Ato confirmed what was known: the proposal was the result of the possibility of funding whose expiration was required to rely on in-depth assessments.

We have heard a radically different proposal based on scattered, interconnected artificial lakes. Something similar has been adopted by Thames Water, the company that operates water service for 15 million people in the London area.

Apriti Pesaro has no solutions to suggest or support, but she is discovering a serious delay in the scientific study of the problem.

We cannot rule out initially that there is a large reservoir among the solutions, but we cannot begin to build a very expensive and highly impactful business without having scientific foreknowledge that this is the best option.

We have requested and again request that the territory commit the resources so that a study group with a high scientific and technical profile investigates the state of the resources on which we can rely in general, and above all possible solutions can be proposed within 68 months with a careful and serious weighting of the strengths and weaknesses of each Suggestion.

* Open Bizarro