Pitch

ASOC WALL: https://padlet.com/nuotiamosottolapioggia20221/swimming-in-the-rain-pbt1...

The initial situation of the project, which our team got interested in, was very critical, as, because of the missing maintenance, lots of floods have happened over time. The situation brought about much distress in the citizens of Salinagrande. The topic we delt with is very important to us because we directly witnessed the flood happened in 2022 and this is also the reason why we chose this project. Moreover, the beginning and the conclusion of the project caught our attention, as they were significantly delayed, as well as the missed use of all available funds. All those aspects made us study precipitation data from 1973 to 2022. Finally, to compare maintenance expenses for our project, we researched a similar project in Italy and found one in Liguria, in the province of Imperia.

We first interviewed Mr Vario and Mr Marino, and they said that as for the stream the problem was the missing maintenance. We later arranged to meet Mr Vario on 27 February for the monitoring visit of the work; on the same day, besides the citizens of Salinagrande, we also interviewed the mayors of Misiliscemi and Paceco. As a final interview, we had an online meeting with Mr Santoro, the General Director of the Basin Authority, who said that the construction of bridges and railways had damaged the river as the flow rate of the bridges was inadequate. We got important answers to our initial questions through all the interviews, especially those to the citizens. During the visit we mainly focused on the aspect of the stream canal today and the damages that people have suffered, due to the overflow of the stream.

After the event which occurred last October, the risk of flooding has decreased thanks to the maintenance carried out in recent months, but the problem persists because, as we can see, the reeds on the streambed are starting to grow again. However, it is likely that the structure, in these conditions, will not be able to withstand another flood like the one that occurred a few months ago. We hope our intervention will encourage the supervisors of the stream hydraulic regulation, to improve its conditions by making significant changes. We are also going to monitor the situation of the Verderame stream in the near future on through regular visits, and keep constantly abreast of the work going.