Water, a disputed resource

12 May 2023

On 6 May, at 2.30 pm, the conference 'Water, a disputed resource' will be held at the Abbey of Maguzzano. A public meeting organised by the Garda Environment Table and the Garda Morenic Hills Park Committee, to talk about the serious problem of drought that has also affected Garda municipalities. 

The meeting was organised to inform and raise awareness among citizens but also tourists about the serious drought problem. It is meant to be an invitation to active participation, a first step for subsequent actions because water, a common good and heritage of humanity, must be guaranteed to all and cannot be the prerogative of a few economic sectors".

A problem that did not blossom in the spring of 2023 and that has long deserved the attention of politics, which, however, has closed its eyes in order to continue endorsing those practices that have brought us to this serious situation today: deforestation, soil consumption, global warming mostly associated with human activities, the use of intensive agricultural practices, pollution of rivers that damages an important water resource, and the poor maintenance of water networks that, in Italy alone, causes 40% of dispersion.

We can no longer wait to intervene, a U-turn is needed immediately, starting with prevention. The 'water emergency' that will increasingly characterise our territory must be taken seriously. Starting in the coming months, the demand for water for agricultural and tourist use will be added to the current civil and industrial uses that are already suffering, and the national water demand will be unsustainable compared to the real availability.

All this will be discussed on Saturday 6 May at 2.30 p.m. at the Abbey of Maguzzano. This is the programme:
- Drought is more than an urgency now - Gianni Tamino (Lecturer in General Biology and Fundamentals of Environmental Law).
- Water crisis and water management in Lake Garda - Aurelio Nastuzzo (Lake Garda expert).
- Water seized by intensive livestock farming - Lorenza Bianchi (PhD in economics. Responsible for livestock farming area LAV).
- Organic farming: innovation to reduce water waste - Maurizio Gritta (President of the IRIS Cooperative).
- Water, tourism and local communities: the social implications of the water crisis - Valerio Corradi (Lecturer in Sociology of the territory Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore).
- Speech by the Brescia Public Water Referendum Committee - Mariano Mazzacani
- Debate and conclusions
(From GardaPost. see more here)