Green light for extraordinary withdrawals from reservoirs against the water crisis

Extraordinary arrangements for drawing water for agricultural use from regional reservoirs against the drought emergency. This is how the Sicilian Region is trying to help farmers in the face of an increasingly intense and frequent phenomenon. The continuing water crisis that is affecting the entire Sicilian regional territory has in fact made it necessary to launch extraordinary measures to guarantee supplies both for drinking water and for the agricultural and livestock sectors.

With special directives issued by the Basin Authority of the Presidency of the Region, the activation of exceptional methods of drawing from the residual volumes of the reservoirs, normally not usable under the ordinary regime, was ordered in order to cope with the serious emergency.

As far as the integrated water service is concerned, the managers of reservoirs and distribution networks have been asked to adopt systems for the withdrawal of surface resources - also using floating platforms - and to activate procedures for the monitoring and transfer of fish fauna, with the aim of guaranteeing the use of so-called 'dead volumes' and preventing fish mortality phenomena that could compromise the quality of the resource intended for human consumption.

In the agricultural and livestock breeding sector, in particular, the reclamation consortia of eastern and western Sicily have been authorised to set up similar extraordinary water extraction methods, again with the aid of floating systems, in order to allow operators in the sector to make use of the residual water resources still present in the reservoirs, even though below the ordinary intake quotas. These measures, shared with the regional Cabina di regia for the water emergency, the Department of Water and Waste and the Department of Agriculture, are part of a framework of coordinated actions necessary to safeguard both the drinking needs of communities and the continuity of production of agricultural and livestock farms, while respecting the safety conditions of the reservoirs and the functionality of the drains.