Between privatisation and drought. In Italy’s Basilicata region, a water crisis looms in 29 municipalities. Protests demand explanation for the sudden draining, the Italian newspaper Manifesto writes:
The situation in the 29 municipalities of Basilicata, including the capital Potenza, where the supply of drinking water has been gradually rationed since the end of May due to the drying up of the Camastra dam, may not improve in the coming days. The water crisis affecting 140,000 people is the result of a drought with half the rainfall of last year, combined with a management of water resources that the Basento/Camastra Public Water Platform denounces as short-sighted.
A “death foretold”, that of the largest reservoir in the region, according to the forty-odd trade unions (including CGIL and Usb) and associations (such as No Triv, Arci, Libera and WWF), led by the Coordinamento Regionale Acqua Pubblica Basilicata, who are asking for clarity on the situation, especially after the conclusion of the crisis unit chaired by the Governor of Basilicata, Vito Bardi, who is also the Commissioner for Water Emergencies, to divert water from the river Basento into the dam to purify it.
THE DECISION OF 13 NOVEMBER was backed up by Arpab’s preliminary analyses, according to which the river showed “only two slight exceedances, for surfactants and phosphates, while the presence of pesticides is below the limit for water intended for human consumption”. The ecological state of the river is therefore “sufficient” to allow the water to be treated, but not to reassure the public. In fact, the pollution of the Basento is well known, especially at the point where the basin is planned, downstream of Potenza, where the water arrives after having passed not only the built-up area with the effluent from the purification plant, but also the industrial area of Tito, already classified as one of the 42 sites of national interest because of the contamination of the abandoned Liquichimica industries, in whose tanks the presence of radioactive phosphogypsum has been detected, and Daramic, which was seized in 2023 as part of an investigation for environmental disaster, because the level of trichloroethylene released into the groundwater was 270,000 times higher than the permitted limit, as reported by Legambiente.
THE PRIORITY IS THAT THE WATER IS SAFE. We believe that the situation will only be resolved if structural measures are taken,’ says Nicola Magnella, president of the WWF of Potenza and Internal Areas. Despite Commissioner Bardi’s announcement that further sampling will be carried out at the Basento intake, the population is extremely concerned about the water that is due to flow into the aqueduct from this Thursday. This concern is expressed in a document in which the associations ask for sampling both at the purification plant and at the tap, for accessible data, for monitoring by Ispra and the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, and for information on the measures planned to overcome the restrictions (the current 12-hour-a-day interruption in the water supply will continue even after the water system connected to the Basento has been put into operation).
THE DOCUMENT WAS ALSO DELIVERED TO THE MAYOR OF Potenza at the end of the demonstration held on Saturday in the Lucanian capital, where citizens asked for clarification on the sudden draining of a dam with 23 million cubic metres of water that is difficult to justify by drought alone.
THE ASSOCIATIONS HIGHLIGHTED the fact that the emptying of the Camastra dam coincided with the start of operations by the Acque del Sud Spa company, set up in January by the Meloni government to take over the management of the hydraulic works of the Ente per lo Sviluppo dell’Irrigazione e la Trasformazione Fondiaria in Puglia, Lucania and Irpinia.
On 18 October, MEPs Arnaldo Lomuti (M5S) and Francesco Borrelli (Avs) tabled a question suggesting a link between the rapid reduction in the volume of the reservoir and the possible opening of the bulkheads as a result of the failure of the test. Lidia Ronzano, spokeswoman for the Public Water Committee, said:
The water crisis that Basilicata, which is so rich in water, is experiencing is nothing other than the result of privatisation, which has taken place despite the 2011 referendum that reaffirmed the need to preserve the public nature of a basic commodity. It is no coincidence that all this happened after the new company was opened up to the private sector.
In fact, the partnership between Acquedotto Pugliese and Acea was signed in June to participate in the tender to become shareholders of Acque del Sud, thanks to the new decree that allows the Ministry of the Economy to transfer shares of up to 30% of water management to private companies.
