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“Impressive, serious, very serious.” Libero Gioveni, former group leader of the Brothers of Italy in the Messina City Council, doesn’t mince words in denouncing what he defines as an authentic environmental disaster: the repeated pollution of the sea in the southern area caused by constant sewage spills. A video to which the Municipal Administration and the AMAM (Messina Southern Water Company) will now be called to respond, filmed in the last few hours in the Contesse seabed.
The underwater video
The turning point in the complaint comes thanks to the initiative of a citizen residing in via Del Carmine with a passion for diving. «Evidently tired of the reassurances received in the past from Palazzo Zanca – explains Gioveni – the resident decided to wear a wetsuit and tanks to film what happens under the surface of the sea. The result is indisputable proof of a disaster that can no longer be ignored. The video immortalizes an underwater pipeline located about 100 meters from the shore of Via del Carmine, in Contesse, from which rivers of sewage flow out.”
The protest: «Citizens deprived of their sea»
The councilor’s statement ends with a harsh political attack and a request to establish responsibility. «All this is unacceptable – concludes Gioveni – not only for the environmental damage itself for which someone should certainly be held accountable, but also because the citizens of this area who would like to use this stretch of sea in the summer season are shamelessly prevented from using it!».
Amam’s response:
“In order to provide correct information and avoid public alarm regarding the content of the news disseminated through the press in recent days, as far as the subject is concerned – declare the Sole Director of AMAM, Salvatore Ruello and the general manager Davide Maimone – we are obliged to take account of the following and of which Amam SpA had already given extensive and immediate clarifications (with note Prot. 15538 of 04/06/2026), following the reports of the President of the II Constituency, which today is brought to the attention of the population.
The exceptional storm events that occurred due to “Hurricane Harry”, which damaged some of the systems intended for the functionality of the sewerage and purification system for the city of Messina, led to the urgent implementation of 18 interventions for the safety and cleanliness of the SII of the city of Messina as well as the design of further infrastructures necessary for the purpose and efficiency of the network.
Among these is the restoration of the underwater pipeline as an emergency discharge in the pumping station called “Zafferia”. For the concrete start of this intervention, it was essential to start the “SAFETY WORKS OF THE ZAFFERIA AND ATM SEWER LIFT SYSTEMS (554ADF)” which are nearing completion. During the execution of these works, as technically contemplated and intuitable – explain Ruello and Maimone – temporary spills are expected which in any case, ex legis, were previously communicated to the control bodies and the Municipal Administration (and precisely with protocol note no. 15538/2026 of 06/04/2026 and protocol note no. 11168/2026 of 04/17/2026). In particular, the technical execution of these interventions involves the need to temporarily suspend the operation of the pumping systems to guarantee the full safety of the workers and to carry out maintenance operations on the tanks. This procedure, necessary and contingent, can cause partial and temporary spills of wastewater in the stretch of sea between the Gazzi and Zafferia streams.
The described activities are, however, now nearing completion and the start of the “WORKS TO REFUNCTIONALIZE THE UNDERWATER PIPELINE IN ZAFFERIA LOCATION” (552PAF.1) is imminent as the delivery report of the former works is imminent. Art. 50 paragraph 6 of the Legislative Decree. 36/23 of 05/21/2026.
AMAM had to do so to rectify and reassure the population that this is not an anomaly in the functioning of the Mili Purifier, as erroneously spread with notes and articles that appeared to this effect and which do not take into account what is already the subject of institutional correspondence, and at the same time to give assurance that the execution of the interventions in the epigraph will guarantee the full protection of marine-coastal waters”