Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni arrived in Niscemi, the town in the province of Caltanissetta devastated by the landslide. Before arriving at the town hall for a meeting with the mayor, the prefect of Caltanissetta, and the Civil Protection Department, she flew over the affected areas by helicopter with the head of the Civil Protection Department, Fabio Ciciliano.
While the Gela Public Prosecutor's Office has opened criminal proceedings against unknown persons for negligent disaster and damage caused by a landslide, the situation is worsening by the hour: the landslide, with a 4-kilometer-long front, which has already forced over 1,500 people to abandon their homes, is not stopping. Quite the opposite.
"The entire hill is collapsing onto the Gela plain," warns Ciciliano after an initial inspection with the scientific team from the department's center of expertise, which highlighted more than just the visible evidence. Many of the displaced will never return to their homes. Ciciliano puts it bluntly: "We will need to develop a plan for the permanent relocation of those who lived there, and a census of those who need support is underway."
To be able to intervene in the red zone, currently off-limits even to firefighters and municipal police, they will have to wait "for the water to drain away." Therefore, Ciciliano clarifies, "it is not possible to estimate the damage at this time. " When the area's usability permits, a "specific focus" will also be conducted to verify any unauthorized construction on the buildings, "many of which," says Niscemi's deputy mayor, Pietro Stimolo, "were built before 1977, when there was no permit system, so there shouldn't be any irregularities."
Sicilian Governor Renato Schifani assured the displaced, some of whom protested in front of the town hall, shouting "shame." The Region will implement "a plan to relocate those who can no longer return to their homes to new or existing housing." Meanwhile, they may soon receive the first aid. As soon as the eviction order is finalized, the process for applying for the independent accommodation grant (CAS) will be activated, which is intended for families left without homes: €400 per household plus €100 for each family member, up to a maximum of €900 per month.
The 1997 earthquake
"What happened with the 1997 landslide will not happen again; the government will act swiftly," Meloni reassures. Many residents of Niscemi are reliving the nightmare of 29 years ago. It was October 12, 1997, and shortly before 2 p.m., people took to the streets crying earthquake. It wasn't an earthquake, but a landslide that recurred in the same, now ghostly, areas as today: the Sante Croci, Pirillo, and Canalicchio neighborhoods. In 1997, the then Undersecretary of Civil Protection, volcanologist Franco Barberi, spoke of "ordinary mismanagement and complete degradation in an area subject to geological restrictions." The Caltagirone prosecutor's office opened a case for negligent disaster, and the 400 evacuees were offered 600,000 lire a month for 13 months to help with their rent. In 2000, 48 houses and the 18th-century church of Sante Croci were demolished. When bulldozers approached the place of worship, a dozen people stood guard to prevent the demolition. Amid legal challenges and protests, the church was demolished. The state of emergency for that landslide was extended several times by the Council of Ministers, at least until 2007.
The construction ban
The Niscemi area has an R4 geological restriction, indicating a very high-risk area, and there has been a complete building ban since 2007. But already in 1997, and in subsequent years with several landslides that also caused the closure of provincial roads, everyone knew about the risks to the town. In 2019, the Sicilian Region funded €1.2 million to stabilize the western slope of the town, which was isolated due to the closure of provincial road 12 following another landslide. National Civil Protection funds were also reportedly allocated, but they were spent on expropriations and the removal and demolition of unsafe houses.
In the 2022 update, the geomorphological risk in some areas of the town was elevated compared to that codified in the previous hydrogeological plan (PAI), the technical and regulatory procedure by which the basin authorities amend land use maps and safety regulations. The update was made following reports from the Municipality of Niscemi of landslides dating back to 2019 that had occurred in several areas, including provincial roads 10 and 12, precisely those affected by the landslide and now impassable. As evidenced by the decree dated at the time, four years ago, inspections were carried out by technicians to verify the collapses, landslides, and landslides reported by the municipal administration. However, no interventions followed.
(Unioneonline)
