ITALY: RECORD LOW RAINFALLS AND WATER MISMANAGEMENT HAVE TRANSFORMED SICILY INTO A DEVASTATED LANDSCAPE
Record ID:
646643
ITALY: RECORD LOW RAINFALLS AND WATER MISMANAGEMENT HAVE TRANSFORMED SICILY INTO A DEVASTATED LANDSCAPE
- Title: ITALY: RECORD LOW RAINFALLS AND WATER MISMANAGEMENT HAVE TRANSFORMED SICILY INTO A DEVASTATED LANDSCAPE
- Date: 29th July 2002
- Summary: (W5) PALERMO, SICILY, ITALY (RECENT) (REUTERS) 1. LV PALERMO COASTLINE; SLV MARINA (2 SHOTS) 0.08 (W5) NEAR PALERMO SICILY, ITALY (RECENT) (REUTERS) 2. SCU TILT UP SLV PARCHED LAND WITH LARGE CRACKS DUE TO DROUGHT 0.18 3. SLV JATO RESERVOIR, NEAR PALERMO; SCU DEAD BIRD PARCHED EARTH 0.30 (W5) SUBURB OF ZEN, PALERMO, SICILY, ITALY (RECENT) (REUTERS) 4. SCU EMPTY WATER TANK; WATER TANK WITH HOUSING IN BACKGROUND (2 SHOTS) 0.40 5. LAS/SLV ANGRY RESIDENTS OF TOWER BLOCK GATHERED IN COURTYARD - SHOUTING ABOUT WATER SHORTAGE 0.48 6. (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) ANGRY RESIDENT SHOUTING "We are abandoned, without water, without electricity. We cant go on like this. We need a revolution, we have to get organized." 0.59 (W5) PALERMO, SICILY, ITALY ( RECENT) (REUTERS) 7. SLV MUNICIPAL WORKERS COLLECTING DYING FISH FROM A DRY CITY FOUNTAIN (4 SHOTS) 1.29 (W5) NEAR PIANA DEGLI ALBANESI, SICILY, ITALY (RECENT) (REUTERS) 8. MV PEOPLE FILLING JERRYCANS AND PLASTIC BOTTLES WITH WATER AT PUBLIC FOUNTAIN (2 SHOTS) 1.38 9. (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) MARIO VERGA SAYING "This is the first time in a week that this fountain has water." 0.45 10. MV PEOPLE COLLECTING WATER; MV CAR BEING LOADED WITH WATER CONTAINERS (2 SHOTS) 2.00 (W5) PIANA DEGLI ALBANESI, SICILY, ITALY (RECENT) (REUTERS) 11. SLV TOWN OF PIANA DEGLI ALBANESI, WITH MAYOR GAETANO CARAMANNO SPEAKING TO LOCAL MEN 2.16 12. MV ITALIAN COMMUNIST PARTY POSTERS READING "IN FAVOUR OF WATER IN EVERY SICILIAN HOUSE, 24-HRS A DAY, THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTY FIVE DAYS A YEAR. AGAINST THE MAFIA, WATER WASTAGE, AND PRIVATE OWNERSHIP OF WATER" 2.25 13. (SOUNDBITE)(Italian) MAYOR GAETANO CARAMANNO SAYING "If we don't get more water soon, we will have to start getting water from private wells. Seizing these wells will be next on our list." 2.46 14. SLV MAYOR WALKING NEAR THE HALF- DRIED OUT LAKE OF THE PIANA DEGLI ALBANESI; SCU DUCKS ON THE WATER; SLV WATER PATCHES OF THE RECEDING LAKE; MV MAYOR LOOKING AT BOAT STRANDED ON DRY MUD FLATS (4 SHOTS) 3.09 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 13th August 2002 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: PALERMO AND PIANA DEGLI ALABANESI, SICILY, ITALY
- Country: Italy
- Reuters ID: LVAB3S7O14LT9UPHSYVV5JI88P4B
- Story Text: Record low rainfalls and water mismanagement have
transformed the southern Italian island of Sicily into a
devastated landscape, with its people crying out desperately
for water.
The sight of parched land and dried up lakes is
something usually associated with drought-stricken African
regions and not with affluent Western Europe.
However, rainfall in Sicily is at its lowest level in more
than 70 years but the drought is not confined to this tiny
island.
From Tuscany to the tip of Sicily, Italy is suffering its
worst drought in decades.
Sicilians see the lack of water is as much more than a
natural disaster. They blame years of low investment in
infrastructure and political negligence for a notoriously
leaky water distribution network in which 50 percent of water
is lost or stolen before it even reaches the user.
In the working class enclave of Palermo called Zen, water
tanks stand empty. Angry residents there have been driven to
desperation by the lack of what most people consider a basic
right: Access to drinkable water.
They say they have been abandoned by local authorities who
have displayed little interest in the residents' lack of basic
amenities.
Palermo's city water features have their own casualties
and municipal workers have been put to work rescuing scores of
dying fish whose habitat has, in many cases been reduced to
little more than a muddy bog.
A much-welcomed rainfall last weekend did little to to
alleviate the situation and reservoirs are likely to run dry
if it doesn't rain sufficiently by October.
Some, more remote areas have faced stretches of up to 20
days without water. Fearing even greater shortages, their
residents now engage in panic water hoarding when water
supplies reach them.
The public fountain near the town of Piana degli Albanesi
is a busy place on days when the water is flowing as anxious
families attempt to prepare themselves for the next dry
stretch.
Unsurprisingly water is the main topic of conversation and
the town's mayor, Gaetano Caramanno has been hard pressed to
answer the questions of angry voters demanding to know why
their needs are not being attended to by the local government.
Water has become a campaign issue with political parties
taking up the cause to demand an end to private ownership of
water resources and investigations into the possible Mafia
involvement in water distribution.
The advantages enjoyed by those with private access to
water resources may be short lived.
Caramanno says that if the situation doesn't improve,
then private water wells owners will be forced to hand over
these vital supplies. If they do not comply voluntarily their
wells will be seized.
While it will be difficult to gain access to privately
owned water wells, it will be even more difficult to discern
just how much water is being siphoned off public wells
illegally by Mafia cartels.
Mafia operations have operated in huge profit, selling off
water from privately owned wells at vast sums and there are
suspicions the shortage of water to public wells is in no
small part due to simple water theft.
With little indication that the heavens will open and
irrigate the parched island, Caramanno may have no choice but
to act against those who are profiting from the drought.
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