Valgas Brings Gas to Mountain Hamlets Boosting Valsabbia Revival
On Friday evening, the symbolic lighting of the GPL flame marked a historic turning point for Teglie and Moglia (both together have less than 200 inhabitants), mountain hamlets of Vobarno that seemed destined, like many other valleys in Valsabbia, for abandonment and depopulation. The arrival of GPL by Valgas, the valley-based company, could instead promote revival, as has already happened in Capovalle (a municipality of 450 inhabitants at 1,000 meters above sea level), Presegno di Lavenone, and Degagna (also a subdivision of Vobarno). “These operations involve a huge effort,” explains Vobarno’s mayor Marina Corradini, “done solely with the political aim of safeguarding populations already heavily penalized by living in the mountains, where services often do not reach. If the investment had been made with the goal of profit, GPL would certainly never have arrived in Teglie-Moglia, nor in Degagna, Presegno, or Capovalle. No one will get rich from this operation, not even Valgas. But if we truly want people to stay in the mountains, we need to bring them services, at least the essential ones.” The Teglie plant comprises almost a kilometer of distribution network and two storage tanks of 5,000 liters each, naturally placed outside the inhabited areas: “These are concrete examples,” added Gianantonio Girelli, president of the Montane Community, “of Valgas’ attention towards small mountain realities, within a territorial solidarity of which the valley society is an operational tool.” Present at the ignition ceremony were also Carlo Gorio and Pasquale Gavi (respectively president and CEO of Valgas) and Renzo Capra, president of Asm: “Valgas’ attention to Teglie,” he said, “is the same as that expressed by Asm for Vallesabbia.” In the end, the connections might number about 50 users for a cost of 200 million euros, out of an estimated 145 connections, as in the case of Capovalle, which required 600 million euros. After all, these actions can help save an environmental heritage that, increasingly abandoned, will otherwise disappear: forests, meadows, roads, trails, riverbanks, and mountain huts—these will vanish if humans do not intervene. And for people to remain, essential services need to reach the mountains. But why does Valgas do this? “Because we are a mixed-capital company, and among those involved in the corporate structure are the Valle Sabbia municipalities and the Montane Community. This public component delegates to the company a particular attention to the most peripheral and less serviced areas.” Fortunately, gas is just the latest example; just think of pharmacies and dispensaries that have arrived in Anfo, Lavenone, Pertica Biosa, Treviso Bresciano, and Valvestino in recent years. The revival of the lower mountain areas begins with these initiatives. Minimum goals, to keep residents and curb the exodus to the plains.
