Oreto and Virgin Mary, 30 million in smoke

Rome cuts water to Palermo and sets sail for loss of funding for the two major projects totaling about thirty million euros for the two coastal “revolutions” of the Oreto River mouth, which alone is worth just under 14 million, and the Vergine Maria marina. The goal was already a dot on the horizon, as defunding could only be avoided by going to tender by June. Utopia, practically. A third intervention, 5.2 million for the Villa Turrisi park, still hopes to go ahead, being further along in the executive project phase, while the first two colossal projects are stuck in the complex environmental authorizations Via and Vas, which - the offices of the municipal Environment Department observe - require 147 to 235 days to clear from the desks of the Region. The big issue emerged yesterday during the hearings of the Urban Planning Commission. It is a euphemism to define the funding as at risk, a legacy of the (failed) M5C2 2.1 of the Pnrr, on urban regeneration. With the Pnrr opportunity vanished, the projects fell under the umbrella of the Pon Metro Plus. And here comes the blow: about ten days ago the national government decisively cut the overall budget, overwhelming these and other projects.

Thus, the problem could likely spread like wildfire, affecting other works covered and then again stripped by the cuts. The timing and substance of the operation prompted the Municipality, a few days ago, to write to the Ministry of Economy, "expressing - explains Councilor Pietro Alongi - the objective circumstance of lack of responsibility on our part in the loss of funds, to consider and implement the possibility of recovery". The belief that it is not their fault, at the Municipality, pairs with the frankness with which it is essentially admitted that the timeline is stuck at the levels of 2023-2024, for a river-cost intervention that during the process required the integration of an additional and very specific environmental assessment, that “ex article 109”, for the discharge into the sea of the offshore dam. In fact, they explain from the offices, they have just managed to pry the practice from the conference of services, a file that still has to reach the Technical Scientific Committee, which has been stalled for about a year and a half at the regional Department of Territory and Environment. And the timeline is still dense, including the passage in city council. With further struggles related to the executive design, for which the checks on the assignments - they always say from the department - take two to three months. The less temperate observers speak of a “theft” that risks sinking, in Palermo as in other cities, works of essential strategic value. "The regeneration of the river mouth - says Five Star Councilor Antonino Randazzo - is the indispensable gateway for all projects for the South Coast and the Vergine Maria landing is a vital issue for the residents of the district." While Randazzo announces that "the national parliamentarians of the Movement will make inquiries in the Chamber and the Senate", Giulia Argiroffi, for Oso in the commission, emphasizes: "The failure that has emerged certifies the administration's inability to meet the commitments made and the approved programs, as well as to contradict in fact those objectives that it had indicated as priorities. A very serious damage for the city that highlights a double failure on the project of the Oreto River mouth: a strategic intervention both for the redevelopment of the South Coast and for the completion of the Oreto Park, which found its final junction right there. Two symbolic projects, repeatedly claimed as hallmarks of this administration, which today remain unfinished."