Port of Gela, the endless story: repeated sampling, works that do not start

The work to free the port of Gela from siltation. The never-ending story writes another chapter made of progress that is a step back.

From an ordinance yesterday from the Harbor Master, it is learned that the company Atlantis has requested authorization to carry out, on behalf of the client Ambiente Lab S.r.l., the activity of surface sampling of sediment from the port's seabed as part of the study and implementation project “Dredging works of the seabed and beach nourishment of the area adjacent to the Eastern pier and the construction of an interceptor jetty”.

Studies that fall under the Port System Authority of Western Sicily. The latter has entrusted the service for the execution of sampling and investigations on samples as part of the preparatory activities for the dredging works of the Gela Refuge Port.

One month of sampling until April 30. What emerges is that once again the sampling of marine sediments will take place. Considering that the analyses on sediments are valid for three years and the last ones date back to 2023, it has become necessary to update them with a new sampling campaign. And this is not the first time it has happened. Public money thrown to the wind. Leaving aside the distant past of these works never carried out to focus on more recent times, the most recent project to free the port from siltation and make it functional dates back to 2019.

In 2023, updating an agreement from 2016, a memorandum of understanding was signed with the Region that provides for the use of 5 million from Eni compensations. Money from the people of Gela while elsewhere the Region uses other funds for port works.

But even with its own funds, Gela has not been able to free its port from “quicksand”. Long bureaucratic times for the transfer of acts and responsibilities from the Region to the Port System Authority of Western Sicily and meanwhile the analyses on sediments have expired and it has been necessary to repeat them. The phase of the works today does not seem to be starting immediately while it remains in the phase of studies and designs, a preparatory phase that sucks public money without ever seeing the problem tackled and resolved. An incredible story that has been dragging on for decades.