The state of emergency relating to the high concentrations of arsenic found in water intended for human use in some municipalities in Lazio continues. The Government has decided to extend the alert until 31 December 2012 as regards the citizens of the affected areas. It would be 11 municipalities in the province of Rome, 8 municipalities in the province of Latina and 38 municipalities in the province of Viterbo, for a total of over 300 inhabitants. The emergency was triggered on 4 December 2010, but the attention threshold is still high in Lazio. The region of Tuscany has also been affected by the arsenic question, which in Franciana (Piombino) inaugurates the largest plant in Europe for the abatement of arsenic in drinking water.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him
Arsenic water. It continues state of emergency related to the high concentrations of arsenic found in thewater intended for human use in some municipalities of the Lazio. The Government has decided to prolong the alert until December 31 2012 as regards the citizens of the areas concerned. These would be 11 municipalities in the province of Rome, 8 municipalities in the province of Latina and 38 municipalities in the province of Viterbo, for a total of over 300 thousand inhabitants. The emergency was triggered on 4 December 2010, but the attention threshold is still high in Lazio. The region has also been affected by the arsenic issue Toscana, which in Franciana (Piombino) inaugurates thelargest plant in Europe for the abatement of arsenic in drinking water.
The extension of the emergency was necessary in Lazio in order to guarantee the carrying out of the works necessary to solve the problem, in compliance with the extraordinary rules of purification launched on March 14 last year. The work required to make water consumption safe again is necessary to guarantee the protection of the health of the citizens of the areas concerned. The concentration of arsenic must be brought back within the limits established by the European Commission, so that the water that reaches the homes of the inhabitants of the municipalities concerned can be considered drinkable and safe for its daily use.
The works in the municipalities of the provinces of Rome and Latina now seem well underway, while it seems that, as regards the province of Viterbo, the purification works could continue for a longer period of time, both due to the conformation of the water network, which would make the necessary interventions more difficult, and due to the higher natural concentration of arsenic in the water. The extension of the commissioner should ensure that arsenic levels return to normal throughout Lazio before the end of the year, at least as stated by Marco Mattei, Councilor for the Environment of the Lazio Region.
"The extension - reads the Government note - was necessary to ensure the completion of the extraordinary and urgent purification interventions approved on March 14, 2011 and aimed at bringing the concentration of arsenic back within the limits established by the European Commission, as well as to safeguard against possible serious risks to primary public interests such as public health and hygiene ".
Sull 'Elba island and in Val di Cornia the problem of arsenic pollution could be definitely resolved thanks to the new plant built at the Franciana power plant, near Piombino. The plant was inaugurated on Friday 2 March in the presence of some of the main exponents of Tuscany region. This is an important step forward aimed both at improving the water quality of the territories concerned, and to ensure compliance with European regulations, which can be complied with thanks to the use of seven filters of large purification. 23 million euros were used for the construction of the work, destined for the resolution of a long-standing and urgent problem, mainly due to the characteristics of the groundwater, unfortunately not excellent due to the peculiarities of the composition of the land in the area.
If the arsenic problem in Tuscany therefore appears to have reached a solution and if in Lazio we are moving towards it, i Ministries of Health and the Environment are preparing to compensate hundreds of citizens scattered in different areas of our peninsula as subjects affected by inefficiencies that in recent years have led to the supply of non-drinking water to private homes, affected by the presence of high quantities of arsenic and other substances the concentration of which has been considered harmful.
Marta Albè
