A disaster that must be fought with different methods
A disaster that must be fought with different methods
Italy is, from a hydrogeological point of view, one, if not the most fragile, of the European countries, both for its morphological conformation and for the type of hydrographic basins and its waterways.
A hydrogeological instability that produces a degradation and instability of the soil with the consequent repercussions on the devastation and destruction of infrastructures, buildings and on that phenomenon of soil loss of agricultural land too little attention also from an economic point of view.
A phenomenon that the meteoric events linked, most likely, to climate change are highlighting in all its proportion and gravity.
As every year, the rainy season brings this phenomenon more and more prominent without understanding the extent of the problem and its possible solutions on a political level.
A very complex issue but which essentially arises from an anthropic tampering with the territory which has already exceeded the level of sustainability for some time and which, year after year, has worsened.
According to the recent ISPRA report of 2022, the data are extremely alarming and involve, albeit with different peculiarities, the entire national territory.
And like every year, a more or less virtuous debate opens up on possible remedies without then, after the autumn and winter period, concrete solutions have been implemented.
The PNRR itself, with its 6 missions (just look at it with more attention) does not concretely place itself in regards to this phenomenon which risks being, in addition and perhaps even more so to energy and the fight against climate change, the most serious and , unfortunately, less addressed.
Against the background of this phenomenon which, we repeat, is very complex and cannot be simplified so easily, there is the question of the national agricultural system, with its criticalities and its significant dysfunctions.
An agricultural system that, misled by an insensitive CAP and an equally short-sighted policy on structural funds (see PSR), sees agricultural soils increasingly subjected to anthropogenic pressure and climatic events that are generating an unprecedented domino effect.
Hydrogeological instability and loss of soil, without mentioning the official data (also from ISPRA) of absolute concern, tell us that we are no longer going anywhere in this direction.
Also because the solution often hypothesized for the arrangement of embankments, dams, dams, etc. it is not, at least the only and, perhaps, the most important.
We need a concrete policy, and therefore investments, with regard to natural surfaces but above all agricultural areas. Suffice it to say that the Italian utilized agricultural area (UAA), equal to 12,598,161 Ha, represents approximately 41.8% of the entire national surface.
This data tells us that it is here where action must be taken as a matter of priority (without letting the information pass that one should not intervene elsewhere).
Interventions are needed in favor of individual farms but also of those privately owned land which is now increasingly abandoned due to economic inconvenience.
We need a national plan, and here only the PNRR or a special fund can be adapted to this function.
Individual plots must be subject to non-repayable investments for the following interventions:
– Land arrangement for the best regulation of rainwater;
– Land cover interventions with arboreal and shrub systems to reduce the impact of rains and to increase the run-off times;
– Implementation of agroecological techniques (and in Sicily we have law 21/2021 which already regulates interventions in this sense) for increasing the crop biodiversity of production systems;
– Any other technique that decreases the consumption of soil and its loss.
Obviously, as happened with the eco-bonus, similar procedures must be launched but certainly more streamlined and which see all individual citizens, with farms at the forefront, that is, those that earn direct income, as the main recipients.
Among other things, at a time of rising prices for agricultural fuels and the value of processing means, this line would represent a suitable and legitimate solution.
This action, we repeat, cannot be considered exhaustive but restoring a large part of the national agricultural fabric would represent that synergy and convergence with the Green Deal (and in particular with the Farm to Fork strategy) which can have repercussions of great ecological, economic and, last but not least, the safety of the population.
We are in a new political season; here we see the true identity of a right or a left that, beyond their now empty facades, must be filled with concrete contents.
We propose and… we wait.
Guido Bissanti