Descrizione

Our civic monitoring is dealing with the project called "Works for eliminating the obstruction of River Salso's mouth". We are focusing our attention on the river crossing Licata, our town, its history and relevance to the territory.
The project we are monitoring has been financed with 400.000€. The contextual information are being searched on websites, portals, online newspapers. The aim of our monitoring is to let people understand the importance of making the river safe, preventing hydro-geological disasters. We are keeping in touch with experts to get informed about the mantainance interventions on the river.

Cosa abbiamo scoperto

Avanzamento

From the information showed on the website Opencoesione (https://opencoesione.gov.it/it/progetti/1si25583/) it seems that at the moment the project is still in progress. But from the interview of Architetto La Mendola we learnt that it was finished.

Risultati

Intervento molto utile ed efficace - Gli aspetti positivi prevalgono ed è giudicato complessivamente efficace dal punto di vista dell'utente finale

The continuous interventions on the river's mouth are needed to preserve the areas surrounding it from floods. The mouth of the river was disobstructed effectively. In order to disobstruct the river mouth runways, where excavators pass. were created at the edge of the riverbed. After the cleaning from the sand, the runways were removed and the riverbed is clear. The effectiveness of the project is only temporary. From our visit we noticed that at the moment the state of the river is good but it has always to be monitored by the Civil Protection.

Rischi

The future risk could be the failure to carry out maintenance works, but considering that the environment represents one of the fields of action of the goals estabilished in the 2030 agenda by the EU, we are confident that the attention towards the river will remain constant.

Risultati e impatto del monitoraggio

Metodo di indagine

Come sono state raccolte le informazioni?

• Raccolta di informazioni via web
• Visita diretta documentata da foto e video
• Intervista con i soggetti che hanno programmato l'intervento (soggetto programmatore)
• Intervista con i soggetti che hanno o stanno attuando l'intervento (attuatore o realizzatore)
• Intervista con i referenti politici

1- Engineer/architect Salvatore La Mendola ( Responsible Ufficio Genio Civile)
2- Assessor of Public works Giuseppe Ripellino
3- Director of the Environment Office Tonino Napoli

Domande principali

1- (La Mendola) Can you solve definetely the problem of the river mouth's obstruction?
2- (La Mendola) What are the procedures for the disobstruction?
3- (La Mendola) Could these works cause damages to the environment?
4- (La Mendola) Do you think that man's interventions have worsened the river's conditions?
1- (Napoli) WHAT ARE RIVER MOUTH'S OBSTRUCTIONS CAUSED BY?
2- (Napoli) HOW IS THE RIVER'S FLOW CONTROLLED?
3- (Napoli) WHEN DOES THE FLOOD'S DANGER OCCUR?
4-(Napoli) WHAT ARE THE AREAS IN LICATA WHICH RISK MORE?
1- (Ripellino) Are you satisfied of the continuous works made in favour of the disobstruction?

Risposte principali

1- (La Mendola) No, it is impossible. Every year in the River Salso's mouth there are obstructions due to the streams of the river watershed, It gets worse when the river streams meet the seastreams because they create sandings.
2- (La Mendola)In order to disobstruct the river mouth runways, where excavators pass. are created at the edge of the riverbed. After the cleaning from the sand, the runways are removed and the riverbed is clear.
3- (La Mendola) No, because when projects are made, they try to respect the environment. We just want to assure that the works are carried out periodically.
4- (La Mendola) Obviously. Overbuilding in the last 50-60 years have caused a damp-proofing of the agricultural soil, so that rain waters flows more violently causing, sometimes, floods.A remedy would be stopping building in agricultural lands.
1- (Napoli) The obstruction of River Salso's mouth is caused by the sand comping from Marianello beach, so some sea-inlets are formed. When there are coastal storms the sea- inlets get bigger an d the river's water can not flow and there are risks of food.
2-(Napoli) But luckily these risks are overcome by the presence of a Venturi tube. This device (named after the physicist Gian Battista Venturi) is used to measure the flow rate, i.e. the quantity of liquid flowing inside pipes and ducts. It consists of a horizontal tube with a restriction, to which a pressure gauge (an instrument that measures the pressure of fluids) is applied. It controls the flow of the river. Moreover the reshaping of the river was made in a natural way.
3- (Napoli) When it rains in town the water is collected by drainage channels. The most serious risk is when it rains in the areas of Palermo-Caltanissetta, crossed by the river Salso. It is 143 km long so it carries all the materials it comes across while flowing. The river flowing takes about six hours from Caltanissetta to Licata . So if there was a serious risk of flood starting from the area of Caltanissetta, we would have time to evacuate people.
4- (Napoli) They are the lands in the area of Mollarella beach.
1- (Ripellino) Of course. There will be new funds for the maintenance of the river. They will be spent for the northern part near the State Street 123 Licata- Ravanusa where the floods usually hit the area of Mollarella. One of the most expensive procedures is the treatment of the sand that must be considered as special waste.