“The news of the revocation of the office of the commissioner of the ATI of Trapani and of the simultaneous entrustment to Invitalia of the path towards the single management of the water service, in application of national regulations and following the Government’s warning, imposes a serious and objective reflection also for the province of Messina”. Thus begins the note from Mayor Federico Basile. “In the Trapani area, after having acknowledged the impossibility of arriving at the assignment of the service in a timely manner, the President of the Region communicated the objective inadequacy of the path undertaken. The national Government therefore intervened as a substitute, entrusting Invitalia with a clear and temporary mandate. Consequently, President Schifani himself deemed it no longer necessary to continue the commissionership, which had not achieved the expected objectives. In Messina, however, exactly the opposite happens: a tender procedure that has already been completed continues to be reiterated deserted twice, we insist on the model of the mixed public-private company and, at the same time, we maintain a commissionership which is producing delays, uncertainties and no concrete results. All this while the city and the province are burdened by an uncertainty that concerns an essential, strategic and vital service such as water”.
Basile’s question
Basile then goes to the crux of the problem: “The question is simple and direct: why in Trapani was it recognized that the path undertaken was not working, intervening in a clear and definitive manner, while in Messina we persist in a management that has not given a positive outcome? It should also be remembered that the issue had been clearly raised in the Chamber, during the discussion of the stability law, by Cateno De Luca and the South calls North group, highlighting the anomaly of a commissioner called to operate simultaneously on several provinces, including Messina. The paradox is evident today: precisely in Messina, which was the case on which that intervention was most concentrated, the commissioner remains unchanged; while in Trapani, where the same commissioner operated, the position was revoked. A contradiction that cannot fail to be highlighted and on which we ask for transparency, respect for the rules and local communities and for the assembly of mayors to become the protagonist again with real involvement of the territories and the administrations that represent them”.
“The water service cannot become a field of continuous experimentation or top-down decisions. Messina has its own management history, has its own structured public company and has the right to be an active part in the strategic choices that concern the future of the network and citizens. It should also be remembered that, in the absence of a single manager of the water service, several financing opportunities have already been lost over the years, including PNRR resources and other funds dedicated to infrastructure investments. It is legitimate to ask how many other opportunities will have to be sacrificed before take a final decision on the revocation of the current commissioner and on the launch of an effective and stable governance of the service. And above all whether we should not wait for a national government commissioner, with management consequences that will inevitably impact on costs and bills”.