In reference to the statements of the Minister of Civil Protection, Nello Musumeciduring today’s question time in the Chamber of Deputies, Palazzo d’Orleans specifies that the Regionthrough the office of the Emergency Commissioner, has already started the second phase of the process to address the water crisis in Sicily some time ago. In fact, a proposal for the second plan of interventions has already been sent to the national department of Civil Protection which includes over 130 projects, developed in response to requests received from ATI, water managers and municipalities. In addition to 200 repairs and purchases of tankers for the Municipalities for over 8 million euros.
This plan is currently the subject of a close dialogue with the competent offices of the Civil Protection of Rome and the observations of the national authorities and also those received, until a few hours ago, from the Municipalities and managers are being taken into account. The update process to ensure that interventions are timely and effective in responding to the severe drought affecting the region, after numerous meetings with the ATI, the last of which was held yesterday, has been completed and is ready to be sent definitively in Rome.
The water crisis in Sicily is the result, in addition to the severe drought, of decades of delays in infrastructure maintenance and strategic planning. Despite this, the current regional government has undertaken concrete actions, also thanks to the allocation of 20 million euros approved by the Council of Ministers last May to deal with the emergency, to which have already been added 39 million from the regional budget and another 40 budget changes are foreseen in the bill already approved by the regional council and sent to the Ars for completion of the legislative process. We continue to work to obtain further resources necessary to complete the interventions, in line with the priorities indicated by the control room and by the delegate commissioner, the President of the Region Renato Schifani.