Associazione Controllo Qualità Urbanistico Ambientale

Chronicle and description of the actions  of the association named  A.C.Q.U.A.,(Dec. 2010)

( association for the quality control of urban environment)

The association ACQUA was officially formed in August 2001 for the protection of the environment and the significant historical local assets; this was done through a legal document, by means of public notary, with three people: Renzo Bortolussi, Master electrician, as President, Mirko Daffara, now a Major in is township, as Vice President and the Architect Giorgio Caregnato as Secretary.

Our first challenge was to hinder the projected basins in the river Tagliamento, an unnatural scheme conceived to control the floods downstream, these were the justifications given for the structures. In the past, in the aftermath of the great floods of 1995-6 in Italy, the Authorities, to prevent other disasters, at the beginning deliberated to build a dyke upstream the river; yet a public uproar stopped the venture as a result of people’s furor, thus the plan was quietly changed into a still worse undertaking: put basins inside the flood bed of the river. A project so absurd that even the consultants that prepared the plans declared openly that those wouldn’t work, thus arises many suspects of a scam.

Premise: the Tagliamento river is held to be the King of the Alpine’s river, natural example of semi-natural river stream, unique in Europe and perhaps in the world. Before the 17hundreds it was flowing free in its bed but since then it was constrained in hearth embankments straight to the sea. Nowadays “mankind” craves to build containment basins, thus ravage its natural watercourse. These solutions not only wouldn’t stop the flooding, but by themselves would cause more destruction enhancing overflowing by increasing the water speed and force, risk analysed by the scholar Ivano De Marchi, published in the N° 53 of “LA BASSA” in Latisana, incredibly this is the same town that is asking for protection and demanded the basins!  (The river Tagliamento is still in these days observed by several world Universities, from Europe, the States and Japan (Kyoto).

The most outstanding undertaking to save the river began by myself in 1996, on the onset it was done by writing a petition to the Italian Parliament to no avail; nevertheless the conclusion of the plot isn’t yet achieve, given the fighting undertaken these years. (note: neither the construction of planned basins was yet realized). This, of course, is mainly due to the activity of the group, A.C.Q.U.A. that coordinated, in these past years, several tasks like petitions to Authorities, local and national demonstrations, legal disputes and public condemnation through the Media. 

Since the start, however, the congregate advanced to ever more environmental issues like air pollution and water contamination, (right now these problems rise to more than thirty cases), inside and outside the Region. Some are relatively “small” compared to some worth hundreds of millions of Euros, consequently our lawyers are busy fighting the charges we denounce in the Courts.

The association is made of several professionals of many disciplines like accountants, architects, doctors, engineers, lawyers and other experts; we are quite popular among the people and the news media because our activities are reported on many TVs and newspapers; several hundreds times so far. Increasingly we are asked for help but sometimes, unfortunately, we must turn the petitioner away.