Italy must prepare for a future of chronic drought, Nature headlines, (1) but Coldirette policies of ‘pond scoundrels’ risk evaporating agricultural water along with public funding of wholly inadequate projects.
In contrast, the Vetto Dam Promoter Committee in the Enza Valley is continuing its public mobilization for an adequate reservoir to meet the water needs of agriculture and the population. (2)
The question remains-all the more so, under elections-what are the political agendas of the various sides. Thousands of unnecessary armchairs and ponds or dozens of dams that can conserve needed water and produce hydropower? #CleanSpades.
1) THE ‘POND PLAN’
The National Assembly of ANBI-Italian Land Reclamation Association, one of Coldiretti’s many power centers-announced its ‘Laghetti Plan’ in early July 2022:
- 223 ‘final and executive, i.e., immediately buildable‘ projects from Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany and Veneto,
- up to 10,000 invaders, all microscopic, to be realized by 2030, circumstances permitting. (3)
1.1) Government support (resigned)
Vincenzo Gesmundo, emperor of agricultural policies in Italy as well as head of Coldiretti’s chiefs, has already entrusted his ex-ministerial hierarchs (Alessandro Apolito and Raffaele Borriello) with the management of the Laghetti Plan. (4) Having himself stated that the six projects in the NRP ‘in essence are signed at the bottom of the page by Coldiretti‘ (5,6). It is therefore not surprising to learn that.
‘Minister Patuanelli called the ponds project ‘wonderful’ and pointed out that this assessment ‘is engineer-like.’ He went on to say that resources and projects need to be systematized and that in any case not everything can be financed by the NRP because for some works that still do not start it is not possible to meet the reporting timeframe set at 2026.’ (7)
1.2) Small lakes – puddles. Background
Former ANSA editor Pierluigi Magnaschi well recalls, in the Italia Oggi newspaper he edited, that ”there are those (especially a powerful farmers’ organization) who have already set out, spear in hand, to launch a plan for hillside ponds that would be puddles bordered by earth to serve individual small farms.’ But ‘this organization forgets that
- In the 1960s, the fashion for hillside lakes had already exploded in Italy, springing up almost everywhere with massive public subsidies.
- These ponds, quickly silted up, ended up in thin air within a few years so much so that there are none left in Italy today.’ So,
- ‘wehope that those who invoke them will want to document themselves before continuing their campaign.’ (8)
1.3) Puddles, impact assessment.
Coldiretti’s ‘Laghetti Plan’ was approved with applause by its loyalists Stefano Patuanelli – a resigning minister – and Stefano Bonaccini, still governing the Emilia-Romagna region. None of which would be said to have considered the impact assessment of puddle construction:
- 40 250,000m3 ponds, planned soon in Emilia-Romagna, can theoretically offer 10 millionm3 of water for agricultural use alone (not for other civil uses as well). Where a town of 168,000 inhabitants like Reggio Emilia today withdraws more than 37 millionm3/year of water from groundwater for civil uses alone, (9)
- the construction of 40 ponds, at an average unit cost of € 7 million, requires an investment of € 280 million, or € 28/m3 of reservoir. When a single dam of appropriate size and depth (e.g. Vetto, 100 mlnm3 in the project of Claudio Marcello Hydraulic Engineering Firm, 1987. See footnote 2) can cost 8-10 times less, as well as return in hydropower.
1.4) Puddles v. dams
Hill or lowland puddles, as opposed to mountain and/or high valley dams:
- consume huge expanses of land, in inverse proportion to the depth of the encroachments,
- expose water to ideal evaporation conditions,
- are energy-intensive because they are filled and emptied not by gravity (like dams) but by pumps,
- do not allow hydroelectric power to be produced,
- do not contribute to hydrological protection with respect to floods and rising rivers. (10)
2) EMILIA-ROMAGNA
Emilia-Romagna has 4.460 million inhabitants plus 20 million tourists each year, with an area of 22,510 sq. km. and a potential volume of water from large reservoirs of only 113 million sq. m. (source Ministry of Infrastructure).
Its agriculture integrates the supply chains of 44 PDO and PGI products-primarily Parmigiano Reggiano (PR, RE, MO, BO), Prosciutto di Parma, and Grana Padano (PC)-and expresses a production value of €4.5 billion (source Emilia-Romagna Region).
2.1) Large region, small invaders
The only dam active in Emilia-Romagna today, with a capacity of 30 mlnm3, was completed in 1982 at Ridracoli (Forlì-Cesena). Its lake, in addition to providing drinking water for residents and tourists on the Romagna Riviera, has become a destination for nature excursions and eco-friendly water sports.
The little remaining water collection capacity in the entire region (83 mlnm3, in theory) is dispersed in small reservoirs, built in the early 1900s and neglected in maintenance. Their storage capacity is thus further reduced.
There are no plans for rainwater harvesting and storage, nor is there any record of the planning essential to ensure the continued use of the Po River water for agricultural purposes, as required by Reg. EU 2020/741. (11)
2.2) Emilia-Romagna, the water diet.
The water diet that Governor Stefano Bonaccini wants to impose on Emilia-Romagna in compliance with Coldiretti and ANBI’s ‘Laghetti Plan’ – 40 puddles soon, 110 later, including 3-4 potholes and a ‘dike’ in the Enza Valley (see para. 3) – has a noteworthy precedent.
Altolà, just by the way, is the name of the hamlet of San Cesario sul Panaro (MO) where € 5.2 million of public money was thrown for a pond, tested in 2009, that no farmer uses. Because the water-if not oxygenated, on the plain with pumps-is stagnant and stinks. (12)
3) VAL D’ENZA, VETTO DAM
Farmers in the Enza Valley, above Parma and Reggio Emilia, are largely members of Coldiretti. But they don’t wear a ring on their nose like their cows (which feed the Parmigiano Reggiano PDO supply chain) and are therefore furious at an imbecilic policy-at the regional as well as the central level-that persists in chattering about a 27 million cubic meter (m3) ‘dam’.
In fact, the Consorzio di Bonifica Emilia Centrale (Central Emilia Land Reclamation Consortium ) will soon receive 3.5 million euros, from the Ministry of Infrastructure, just for the feasibility study of an infrastructure that will cost 300 and take 10 years but will barely cover a third of water needs. (13) Two centuries after the first project, 33 years after work was suspended on the Marcello project to build the real Vetto Dam, with a100-million-m3 multifunctional lake. (2)
3.1) #digadiVetto, environmental impact.
The Vetto dam can be built with a relatively modest dam due to the natural conformation of the Vetto Strait to create a 102 millionm3 reservoir. Water from the dam – Lake Vetto:
- maintains the minimum vital runoff (DMV) of the river (3-4m3/second), which is essential for the survival of terrestrial and aquatic animals, as well as plants found on the banks of the Enza River,
- enables it to maintain biodiversity and promote chlorophyll photosynthesis by sequestering CO2 to produce oxygen. Their percolation underground restores groundwater levels, which have been significantly lowered in recent decades.
3.2) #digadiVetto, socio-economic impact.
Only a dam worthy of the name – such as the 100 mlnm3 one planned for the Vetto Strait in the 1980s, not even the 27 mlnm3 Bonaccini ‘dam’ – can enable:
- ensure the drought resilience of forage crops and the polyphytic stable meadows of the Val D’Enza, the birthplace of Parmigiano Reggiano DOP,
- Provide useful hydropower to at least 140,000 citizens. In addition to the solar energy that could be derived from the installation of photovoltaic panels (as in Muttsee, neighboring Switzerland), (14)
- offer low-salt water, for hydropotable uses, at lower costs than at present and without depleting groundwater. In line with EU dir. 2084/2020 and Sustainable Development Goal 6 (#SDG6, Clean Water and Sanitation), (15)
- create value in the area, including through sustainable tourism that can be developed around the lake in pleasant locations now suffering from depopulation.
4) DROUGHT EMERGENCY
‘Almost all simulations performed by international bodies lead to the prediction of further ‘tropicalization’ of the climate in our latitudes i.e., the presence of many violent and damaging rainfall events of relatively short duration resulting in floods and devastating damage, followed by long periods of total dryness.
The construction of a number of reservoirs of at least 100 million cubic meters each (they are considered small reservoirs) will be indispensable to guard the agricultural, hydropower, and industrial activities of the Po Valley of Emilia and cope with the increasingly frequent drought spikes in the coming years‘ (Eng. Sergio Bandieri. In Montecchio nell’Emilia, RE, 22.6.22).
5) DAMS AND LAKES, NOT PUDDLES
Policy must respond to the needs of the people and the agribusiness chains that nourish the country and its economy. All the more so at a time in history when Made in Italy food products are one of the very few resources to mitigate a trade balance in serious deficit. Without water, agriculture dies.
We need dams and lakes, not puddles. The start of work to build at least five large reservoirs in Emilia-Romagna, which have been requested in vain for too many years, is overdue. Vetto Lake Dam (RE, PR), but also those of Castrola (BO), Armorano (PR), Farini (PC), and Forlì-Cesena (FC).
6) MOBILIZATION
On Tuesday, 8/16/22, for the third year in a row, many citizens and farmers will gather at Taglione di Vetto for the #digadiVetto, #CleanSpades mobilization. For urgent reactivation of the existing project, with six months to update studies and four years for the full implementation of the Vetto Dam-Lake. (16)
The mobilization continues, on the ground and also online, with the support of Great Italian Food Trade (GIFT) and Égalité Onlus, which has always been at the forefront of affirming fundamental human rights and the environment. Pond scofflaws are short of breath, as well as heavy.
We will oppose by every legal means the waste of public resources in the farce of puddles.
Dario Dongo
Notes
(1) Stella Levantesi. Italy must prepare for a future of chronic drought. Nature Italy. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d43978-022-00090-5. 16.7.22
(2) Dario Dongo. Vetto dam to save Parmigiano Reggiano’s stable meadows. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 24.8.22
(3) Laghetti Plan, ANBI and Coldiretti announce the first 223 projects already workable. Ruminantia. 7.7.22
(4) Dario Dongo. Public administration, loyalty to the state or to Coldiretti? #CleanSpades. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 27.6.21
(5) Dario Dongo. National pesticide action plan, sustainable agriculture and NRP. #CleanSpades. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 4.2.22
(6) Dario Dongo. CAP, European Commission rejects Italy’s National Strategic Plan. #CleanSpades. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 14.4.22
(7) Coldiretti and Anbi’s Invasi Plan “wins over” the government. The Coldiretti Point. 11.7.22
(8) Pierluigi Magnaschi. Without the construction of new dams, Italy’s thirst for water will not be quenched. Italy Today. 5.7.22
(9) Gabriele Franzini. Drought and water consumption: in Reggio Emilia, network losses from 20 to 28 percent in 10 years. Video. Reggionline. 28.6.22
(10) Recall the overflow of 10 millionm3 of water from the Enza River at Lentigione (hamlet of Brescello, RE) on 12.12.17, with 1,157 people displaced and over € 105 million in damages. V. ‘Lentigione flood 4 years later: what has been done and what remains to be done‘. Civil Defense Journal. 10.12.21
(11) Dario Dongo, Ylenia Patti Giammello. Agricultural waters and food security, reg. EU 2020/741. THE ABC’S. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 26.9.21
(12) Gianni Galeotti. Water that is there but not used: from San Cesario to Fossalta. The Press. 27.6.22
(13) Vetto Dam, “now or never.” Reggio Report. 13.4.22,
(14) PV, Axpo starts 2.2 MW “alpine” plant on Muttsee dam. Daily relay. 8.10.22
(15) Dario Dongo, Ylenia Patti Giammello. Drinking water, the universal right and the EU directive. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 9.7.21
(16) Luciano Catellani, Jaures Marmiroli. The role of dams. Parma Gazette. 5.8.22
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
