Council questions, parliamentary interpellations, requests for access to documents, back-and-forth press releases, poison on social media and press conferences. In parallel with the real emergency, the one experienced by many families in Messina with dry taps, the Basile administration must face another crisis, the political one. Because beyond the reassurances given publicly and almost daily, in compliance with the new strategy communication imposed by the leader Cateno De Luca through his staff, there is concern at the top levels of Sud chiama Nord about the direction that this water emergency problem can take – politically and, in perspective, electorally. And it is no coincidence that a rather sleepy and “unglued” opposition has found momentum and sharpened its blades precisely on this issue, which affects the daily life of the community like few other areas of public services (only the waste sector comes close, due to the “sensitivity” of public opinion).
The Pd’s attacks
On the one hand, therefore, the drought and the flaws of a water network that is still too weak after years of almost total disinterest, on the other, the “water war” of politics. The most combative front is the one that sees the Democratic Party in the trenches, which if in Palermo continues to be a potential ally of De Luca and associates, in Messina stands as the standard-bearer of the opposition. The provincial Democratic coordination has even set up a permanent Observatory on the water crisis and does not spare interventions and attacks, both with its municipal councilors and with the only “official” party body awaiting the congress, namely the coordination, but also with Roman incursions. A very recent question presented to the commission of the Chamber of Deputies to the ministers for Civil Protection and Infrastructure is by Stefania Marino, a deputy of the Democratic Party from Enna, in which two rather “poisonous” points are touched upon: «It would seem that a portion of the water managed by Amam is directed towards the city of Taormina and another portion, instead, is directed towards the Webuild construction site for the doubling of the Palermo-Catania-Messina railway line». The Observatory on the water crisis had also raised doubts on the issue and not only (“how much water do we “give away” to Taormina and other municipalities along the route? How much does the supply of cruise ships weigh? When will the irrigation of green areas with drinking water be disconnected?”). And city councilor Alessandro Russo also submitted a request for access to documents, “to have a copy of all receipts and documentation relating to the triangulation of water between the Fiumefreddo aqueduct and the Alcantara aqueduct that concerns the transfer of water to Taormina, all useful paperwork to understand and document how much water we give, how much is returned to us and how each individual step is documented”, but he also asked Amam “for the possibility of carrying out an inspection visit in the next few days at the Fiumefreddo aqueduct pipeline, especially on the Taormina “detachment” and on the Giampilieri one, to verify in the field how it works and how it is calculated by the company’s meters, the transfer of water and its diversion to and from Taormina”.
The mayor: «Scavenging»
The point, whose political sensitivity is evident (it will not escape notice that the mayor of Taormina is none other than Cateno De Luca), has been addressed several times by Amam, by De Luca himself and by the mayor Federico Basile, who in recent days has reiterated: «The agreement signed between the Municipality of Taormina, Amam and Siciliacque provides, as we have always said, only the role of transport by Amam, so that the quantity that is transferred to Taormina returns entirely to Messina. Evidently, for those who want to exploit and make political profiteering, it is too complicated to understand. For this reason, we are preparing a press conference for the next few days at the exact point where Siciliacque returns the water resource to Messina, with a meter in hand. We do not allow anyone, at this time, to play with the inconveniences of our city”.
Forza Italia reopens the wound
But the water crisis-agreement with Taormina continues to be politically juicy and now Forza Italia is also intervening: «The “exchange” of water with the Municipality of Taormina must be clarified immediately – is the request made yesterday by Forza Italia coordinator Antonio Barbera –, after the work to replace the water supply pipes in Calatabiano, given that in Taormina there is water while in Messina it arrives with an eyedropper and in the Ionian municipality a graft has been created that takes water from the Fiumefreddo pipeline destined for Messina. If it is true that, as they say, the water is returned in equal quantities by another aqueduct, here the numbers do not add up and neither does the water». Furthermore, for Barbera, «those who have been administering since 2018 must seriously assume their responsibilities. The time of “blaming those who were there before” is over and it is certainly not the fault of “fate”, given that the administrator Basile is the continuation of the De Luca administration and six years is enough time for the issue to be resolved or at least addressed with a different imprinting».
ScN’s replicas
The task of responding, both to the PD and to Forza Italia, was entrusted to the city coordinator of Sud chiama Nord, Nino Carreri. «The request for inspection access to verify how much water from the municipal water service goes to Taormina and for the Webuild works for the railway doubling of the Palermo-Catania-Messina line appears specious. The documents will deny a mere act of political scaremongering. The Basile administration has nothing to hide», the response to the PD. And to Barbera and Forza Italia, Carreri replies: «It is clear that there are those who have forgotten the conditions in which Amam was when De Luca took office as mayor of Messina. The average water supply was limited to 12-13 hours a day, Amam was close to bankruptcythere was no project for the identification of alternative sources and for the completion of the reservoirs, no plan for the redevelopment and safety of the water distribution network. At the end of the mandate, in February 2022, the average daily water supply had risen to 18-19 hours a day, the H24 strategy had been implemented, the Amam budgets had been restored, a Project Park of over 50 million euros had been drawn up”. And then the counterattack: “Could the solutions to Messina’s water supply problems have perhaps come from the Forza Italia exponents who governed the city for decades? Barbera, explain to us why the Musumeci and Schifani governments have not resolved the water fragilities of Sicily and Messina despite having the tools and the money”.
It is the great paradox of this summer of crisis: we suffer damned from the drought, but the deluge of controversies is increasingly alluvial. And the impression is that we are only at the beginning.