The occasion is the most tempting in recent years. The next Simplifications decree with the 120 billion euro Unblock construction site plan on which Matteo Renzi insists, will have to think about the security of the territory. An opportunity not to be missed to shelter millions of people from landslides, mudslides and floods. The latest landslide whose photos are going around the world (fortunately without harming people) concerns the characteristic shovels of San Martino in the Dolomites.
The decree will free up money and it would be a serious contradiction if it did not contain measures against immense dangers from North to South. We need to reopen or activate construction sites in the sign of that sustainable and green Italy proclaimed by Conte and many ministers. All the more reason because hydrogeological instability seems to have disappeared from the political agenda. Yet it is necessary to intervene on that 7,9% of Italy that Ispra defined the other day as in the balance. Yes, there is an Italy in the balance, exposed to incalculable risks and long before the coronavirus. It is strange to say, but it seems that we had to witness a modern scourge to remedy an ancient evil.
The Ispra technicians are almost unable to denounce the worrying state of entire parts of Italy. Up to now have counted the beauty of 620.783 landslides. They prepared and presented the new “Idrogeo” platform. A communication and information dissemination tool for consulting and sharing data, maps, hazard indicators and the Inventory documents of all landslides. The inventory alone cost 4,1 million euros.
But who should be responsible for intervening, if not real coordination between the government and the Regions? The data on disasters and victims are even underestimated, because local authorities do not always catalog events in a uniform way. There are Regions that have not updated their banks since 2007. The great plan to secure the country, which we hear about during the inevitable disasters, exists only on paper and in government programs. The construction sites already authorized and suspended due to the usual pedantic bureaucracy must therefore reopen. But it is also necessary "to define national standard criteria for data quality in order to guarantee a geological product of excellence" wrote Ilaria Falconi, Councilor of the Italian Society of Environmental Geology.
The focus on lowering risks and preparing medium and long-term mitigation strategies must be general and transversal among all institutional actors. The Minister of Infrastructure, Paola De Micheli, party to the new decree, has just given green light to 445 million for Municipalities and Provinces for extraordinary road maintenance. A good thing that, in addition to creating jobs, generates local positive impacts. The redevelopment of the territories is not detached from the green strategy that the government says it is pursuing even after Covid. The proof lies precisely in the ability to push hard on the jobs planned or to be planned to keep the country safe
