Water Management Disputes at Lake Garda Spur Official and Parliamentary Responses

Engineer Quarta, of the Operational Unit of the Waters Magistrate of Mantova, is dishonest when he claims he could not increase water outflow from the lake between late October and early November because the Po was unable to receive more; and it’s not me who disputes this, but rather his colleagues from Venice and Verona and the same Po Magistrate who, during a meeting last Tuesday at the prefecture in Verona, stated that they had never issued opinions opposing the operation, the only measure that would have allowed lowering Garda’s water level.

Official Responses and Appeals

It is the mayor and parliamentarian Umberto Chincarini who responds to the technical official’s statements made following concerns raised about the actions of the Operational Unit by the heads of the services in Venice and Verona.

“The documentation leaves no doubt: Mantova was repeatedly urged, starting from October 27, to open Salionze to allow more than the 30 cubic meters per second that at that moment were flowing out of Garda.”

“The Mantovan reality,” continues Chincarini, “is very complex and well explained by the technical report prepared by Engineer Celestino Dall’Oglio, who was tasked with studying the situation after the damages caused by the flood last November. However, ultimately it will be the judge who decides on all this.”

The mayor has, in fact, filed a report with the Public Prosecutor’s Office, but this is not the only official act regarding the lake’s water levels. Just days before the emergency, Chincarini had also submitted a parliamentary question to the ministers of Public Works and Environment: recalling the approximately 500 million euros in damages suffered last year by the Garda basin and reviewing the history of responsibilities concerning water levels.

Parliamentary Questions

The Lega Nord parliamentarian asked, among other things, whether the ministers intend or not to consider the proposal to “rename the Commission for regulating the levels of Lake Garda by replacing the abolished representatives with those from the provinces of Brescia, Mantova, and Verona, including the mayors of Sirmione, Riva del Garda, and Peschiera, as well as the presidents of the Veneto and Lombardia Regions, and allocate modest but concrete financial resources for its operation.”

Another question was submitted yesterday by Congressman Alberto Giorgetti to the Minister of the Interior and the Minister of Public Works: this document summarizes recent events and reiterates the serious environmental risks caused by the situation, which “is worsened by the discharge into the lake of waters that should be treated by the collector,” and that “black waters are being directly dumped into the lake.”

Giorgetti then asks, “What immediate initiatives do the involved ministers intend to undertake to limit and repair the damage caused by the lack of control over Garda’s water level, should they decide not to assess the responsibility of the Waters Magistrate in relation to the evident operational omissions caused by the lack of oversight of the situation?”