"By decree tomorrow, I will extend the risk area to protect the population of Niscemi by approximately 25 square kilometers. A complete building ban will be imposed in this area."
The decision was made by Leonardo Santoro, Secretary General of the Basin Authority of the Sicily Hydrographic District, following the landslide that is devastating the town of Niscemi, in the province of Caltanissetta, displacing thousands of people. The red zone will remain 150 meters wide.
The decree, which will update the Hydrogeological Management Plan, was made necessary after technicians used drones to monitor the area affected by the landslide. The area extends downstream from the collapsed ridge.
"I'll just give you a figure that can give you an idea," explains Fabio Ciciliano, head of the Civil Protection Department, a guest on Sky TG24's Start program. " Right now, we're talking about a landslide of approximately 350 million cubic meters. For comparison, the Vajont disaster of 1963 moved 263 million. So technically, we're talking about almost one and a half times the amount of mountain, land, and landslide that fell compared to that of Vajont."
1997 will not be repeated, promised Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who visited Niscemi yesterday after a helicopter flight to see firsthand the disaster caused by the landslide that is threatening the entire town and has not yet stopped.
The Gela Public Prosecutor's Office, led by Salvatore Vella, has opened an investigation into negligent disaster and damage. The same move was made by prosecutors after 1997, but it resulted in the acquittal of all defendants. The magistrates will be tasked with determining, among other things, what has been done over the past 30 years on land classified as R4 (maximum level) geological risk since 2007, already devastated in 1997, and the site of continuous landslides (the last in 2019 led to the closure of one of the three provincial roads leading to the town). Tracing the work carried out to consolidate and secure the waterways is not easy. What is certain is that of the 46 hydrogeological instability projects funded with €99 million from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), none concern Niscemi, and that none of the municipal administrations in office over the past nine years has submitted a project for funding to the Commissioner for Land Consolidation.
"I have a folder on my computer, the offices have the documentation," Niscemi Mayor Massimiliano Conti defends himself. "On every anniversary of the 1997 landslide, I've sent a letter to the President of the Republic, the President of the Region, the Prime Minister, and the department heads. Furthermore, only in December 2025 did we receive the funds earmarked for Phases 2 and 3 of the landslide 29 years ago, which is what we've been working on. In any case, we'll discuss the matter; I don't want to argue. At this stage, we're focusing on the immediate needs and assistance of citizens ."
(Unioneonline)