The Cer in Salvatonica
by Martin Miraglia and Giada Magnani
The situation in Ravenna and the rest of Romagna is desperate, with rains that still partially persist in the area, boots and submersible pumps that cannot be found, one hundred municipalities affected by floods and at least 36,000 displaced people, most of them from the second largest municipality in Italy, also dealing with the flooding of the Savio. Enough, according to the Region, to try to take extreme measures, such as the reversal of the water flow of the Cer, the Emilia-Romagna Canal.
The regional councilor for the environment, Irene Priolo, announced the attempt by the plumbing company, never before attempted, during a press conference with the president of the Region Stefano Bonaccini and the head of Civil Protection Fabrizio Curcio.
The Cer flows from Salvatonica, a village in Bondeno, where it connects with the Po and then flows into Romagna for 135 kilometers. Under normal conditions, the longest artificial canal in Italy passes through Sant’Agostino and its Cavo Napoleonico and then continues to Galliera and from there it irrigates the internal areas of Romagna. Now, with the Savio in full flood and the Cer already overflowing at various points in recent days, it is worthwhile for the Region to try to reverse course with a set of screens and artificial embankments to protect the city of Ravenna.
“An operation never done before is underway, we are trying to invert the waters of the Cer to take them to the Cavo Napoleónico and the Po and we have closed the Savio route. The water is increasingly in the Ravenna area and goes to the sea, we are working to prevent it from continuing to spread the water,” Priolo explained. And on Friday afternoon the first trucks full of earth arrived to create an artificial embankment that could protect Ravenna.
After all, in recent days the Cer has confiscated the water of all the flooded watercourses in its surroundings, receiving volumes of water one hundred times greater than its maximum capacity.
Meanwhile, the red alert continues in Romagna, where more effects are feared on Sunday due to the hydraulic problems still unresolved, together with the risk of landslides caused by the weakening of the soil by the water that has fallen. in recent days and the consequent flooding. In several areas, especially in and around Ravenna, evacuation orders are in place.
It is in this context that in Argenta, as far as the Ferrara area is concerned, the ACLI club in via Chiesa in San Biagio has decided to make available to the displaced from Lavezzola, a fraction of the Ravenna municipality of Conselice, free of charge. , beyond the Bastia bridge that delimits the two provinces, its own car park and connected services to park the citizens’ cars in the event that the hamlet was also submerged by water after the capital was involved in the flooding of the right of Reno between Frascata, Giovecca and Voltana and that the City has asked residents to evacuate if they cannot reach the upper floors.
The means of transport for this large part of the population were amassed by the owners at the gates of San Biagio, at the foot of the ramp that leads to the Bastia bridge, which crosses the Reno River.
parking lot of the former Eridania factory, practically taken by assault, but also occupying Largo Ariosto, the school square and other points of passage in the town.
Now everyone is waiting for the leak, road and urban safety to be solved. “We hope that the matter will be resolved as soon as possible -the displaced say-, we want to return to our home”.
Meanwhile, the number of evacuees from Campotto (withdrawn from the criticality of Via Bucci, Bastia Ponente, Cardinala, Pacinotti, Lanconelli, Galilei) who yesterday left their homes convinced that they were invited to do so after a possible forced interruption of the water. drainage of the “Sesto Alto” embankment, a stone’s throw from Sant’Antonio di Medicina, in the Bologna area, while rail traffic remains suspended.
