2023-05-21 16:30:31
The historian Roberto Balzani speaks: in 1870 the marshy land was equal to 141,000 hectares, today 16,000 remain. An effort that began with the Baccarini law of 1882
The center of Ravenna has been preserved up to now from the flood thanks to the generosity of the farmers who have given the go-ahead to the Prefecture: to flood their fields to ensure that the water spares the city centre.
Below we report the interview with the historian Roberto Balzani, who recounts what the area devastated by the floods looked like in the past and the reclamation work of the marshes that has affected the area in the last century and a half.
According to the data of an investigation carried out in 1870, at the time the marshy land in Emilia-Romagna amounted to 141,000 hectares. Today the remaining part of the Valli di Comacchio occupies 16,000 hectares. The statistics, quoted by the historian Roberto Balzani, speak for themselves. Over the years, the reclamation work has been huge and fruitful, even if the recent floods have caused damage that will not be easy to remedy. Professor of contemporary history at the University of Bologna, mayor of Forl for the center-left from 2009 to 2014, Balzani has studied the economic and social events of Romagna with great attention.
So does the reclamation effort begin with the unification of Italy?
In reality, the first regimentation of watercourses took place during the Napoleonic period, starting from 1807, with the start of an artificial canal intended to act as a spillway of the river Reno to avoid its flooding, frequent at the time. the so-called Cavo Napoleonico, completed during the 20th century, which connects the Reno to the Po and makes it possible to regulate its outflow.
When do they resume operations?
In this regard, the Baccarini law of 1882 was decisive, which provides for a strong intervention by the State also to combat the scourge of malaria. Following that provision, the marshy area located north of the Via Emilia, between the coast and the Po, was reclaimed. Suffice it to say that at the time most of the surface of the municipality of Ravenna was occupied by water, which, moreover, is the largest in Italy after that of Rome. The initiative is due to Alfredo Baccarini, a deputy from Romagna and minister of public works in the government of Agostino Depretis.
How was the work done?
In the traditional way, by filling. Agricultural workers were employed, the scarrioli, who carried the earth in the swampy area with their wheelbarrows to raise the ground level. It was very hard and tiring work. At the time, the transformation of marshes into rice paddies was also started, then abandoned when it became possible to import cheap rice from abroad. In the twentieth century, steam pumps were used to drain the water.
How long does the cleanup work continue?
Beyond the mid-twentieth century. Fascism launches the Serpieri law in 1924 and prepares a program for the “integral reclamation”, which decrees the emptying of the marshy areas and their cultivation as part of the so-called “battle of the grain” for Italy’s food self-sufficiency. But the regime’s investments were greatly reduced following the great crisis of 1929. Then, after the Second World War, the massive use of DDT took over, which made it possible to effectively combat malaria.
May 21, 2023 (change May 21, 2023 | 2:33 pm)
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