PrefBlog

My generation’s epitaph will be “well, we didn’t raise taxes!“:

Set atop a hill on the Italian island of Sicily, Agrigento is a heritage tourist’s paradise. Beneath the archaeological structures and relics of its Valley of the Temples lies an ancient maze-like aqueduct system that still captures water today.

But the aqueduct, and others built in modern times, are running so dry that small hotels and guesthouses in the city and nearby coast are being forced to turn tourists away. They don’t have enough water to guarantee their guests a toilet that flushes or a shower after a day out in the summer heat.
…
Francesco Picarella, head of Agrigento’s Hotel Federation, who also owns a hotel in the city center, says years of ineffective governance have made things worse. There has been talk of rebuilding the water network since 2011, but little progress has been made, he said.

“Today’s problem is the result of a failed water management policy that has been going on for 20 years,” he said. “The hotels that have their own reserves somehow compensate; the B&Bs in the historic center are in extreme difficulty.”

He said that the reservoirs are drying up because of lack of rain but also leaks.

In response to CNN’s request for comment, the Sicilian regional government’s office pointed to a study that outlined government plans to drill new wells, build more pipelines and bring aging desalination plants back online. The report also says Sicily has not received enough funds from Rome to carry out its plans.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 8th, 2024 at 9:15 pm and is filed under Market Action. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.