Sinkhole in Florence, the culpable disaster of an Italy now without maintenance

SINKHOLE ON THE LUNGARNO IN FLORENCE –

A 200-meter sinkhole in the city center, caused by a burst water main, with cars engulfed and buildings evacuated, and with the deaths miraculously averted, is an apocalyptic scene unseen in any civilized city in the world. Yet this is what is happening in Florence, the capital of art, culture, and tourism. But also in an Italy that squanders all this due to the carelessness, indifference, and incompetence of its ruling class of administrators and politicians.

ALSO READ: Italy lacks maintenance, yet we spend 7 billion a year on emergencies.

THE CAUSES OF THE SINKHOLE THAT SWALLOWED CARS IN FLORENCE –

Mayor Dario Nardella acknowledges "human error" and promises someone will pay. But that's not all. Indeed, the waterworks manager who will be fired could be the perfect scapegoat for other crimes, and many other culprits. This story has a headline that we've written several times on the Non sprecare website: in Italy we have eliminated the word "maintenance ." And the first to do so were the mayors themselves , partly due to funding cuts, but also because a large portion of them, especially in medium-sized and large cities, have been caught up in national political ambitions. They have thus forgotten and erased the duty of good local governance (taking care of potholes, roads, services like water and sanitation, etc.), replacing it with an obsessive pursuit of national-level action . And so on with the events, often needless wastes of public money, or with aggressive interventions on national political issues. Zero maintenance . In Florence, the burst pipe belongs to a system dating back to the 19th century, when the city was the capital of Italy, and has never been fully operational or safe . So much so that in the Tuscan city, 36 percent of public water is wasted, leaking precisely because of a leaky sewer system.

TO KNOW MORE: Uncontrolled construction: Italy is losing 55 hectares of land every day.

ITALIAN TERRITORY AT HYDROGEOLOGICAL RISK –

And after the mayors, or even before them, if you prefer, there are national politicians, who don't care about the country's upkeep, because in their opinion it brings neither votes nor popularity, but merely a tiring and obscure daily grind . Proof? When Matteo Renzi took office at Palazzo Chigi, he discovered a treasure trove of €2.236 billion earmarked, and therefore available, but never spent. It was supposed to be used for maintenance and prevention work against the risk of hydrogeological instability, a risk affecting 81 percent of Italian municipalities. Precious money, but never touched, and therefore wasted, precisely because maintenance has been canceled, in Rome as in the Tuscan city. It would be interesting to know if, after more than two years of Renzi's government, any of that river of money has actually been spent. And how, and with what results.

( Cover image credits : ANSA / MAURIZIO DEGL'INNOCENTI )

TO KNOW MORE: Hydrogeological instability: a national plan with European funding is needed.