The trouble with the CAI:“No to a reservoir in the Vanoi stream”.Dangerous and would also lead to arguments

The CAI rejects the construction of a reservoir on the Vanoi stream:it could trigger a conflict between the mountain population and the plains and would bring "criticality from a geological point of view to an area characterized by maximum danger"

NAPLES – No to the construction of a reservoir on the Vanoi stream, on the border between Veneto and eastern Trentino, because it carries the risk of “conflict between mountain and plain populations“, because “there is widespread opposition” to the project and, last but not least, because it would have a “negative impact” on an ecological and environmental level.This is said by the Italian Alpine Club, which with its central management, supported by the technical bodies of Tam, and by the Environment secretariat, has given negative opinion, adopting a presidential resolution and presenting observations on the project of the Brenta Reclamation Consortium.The association also requested admission to the public debate on the work, initiated by the Reclamation Consortium.

In addition to the production of hydroelectric energy, explains the CAI, the reservoir is dedicated to the accumulation of water for irrigation and agricultural use, for the extensive cultivation of the plain.And so "it could open up a political and administrative conflict between the mountainous and flat territories“.It also has “an important ecological impact” on the surrounding environment, with “many critical issues from a geological point of view in an area characterized by maximum danger“.Finally, "the possibility of accumulating a large quantity of water in the reservoir clashes with the drought and scarcity of water resources that characterize the climatic and environmental framework of recent years", the CAI points out, recalling that the compensatory work, the cycle-pedestrian path that leads from the Gobera pass to Primiero, "is not useful for enhancing the environmental and natural specificities of the compromised places".

The national delegate for Environment and Protected Areas of the CAI Mario Vaccarella explains that the reservoir project has seen "an unusual convergence on the inadvisability of carrying forward the work for the reasons widely illustrated by various subjects, stakeholders, public and private, for the protection of the mountain environment and in various offices, including the Cai Centrale and the Sat".The benefits of a possible use of water in the plains, in fact, "would not compensate for theecological impact and the environmental damage that could be caused."On these issues "there are no popular consultations, very often conditioned by numbers, by emotional impacts and not by technical evaluations, which instead are required in the cases of these hydraulic works which have a strong impact on the territories".

Among those opposed, the CAI recalls, is the Autonomous Province of Trento which "has warned the Consortium from carrying out further activities aimed at the construction and design of works affecting its territory, due to the clear violation of the regulatory provisions and instruments of current planning and programming".Still on the topic, the newly elected European Parliamentarian Cristina Guarda (Greens-European Free Alliance) sent a detailed note to the European Commissioner for the Environment, describing the situation and the hypothesized violations of European rules.Not only that but “critical issues and negative assessments" also came from the Committee for the defense of the Vanoi stream and fresh waters, from the Trentino and Belluno sections of Italia Nostra and from Mountain Wilderness.

As for the central CAI, "it intends to act as a point of reference on the issue", given that since the territory between Veneto and Trentino is involved, it was born "from an intense debate and comparison with the technical bodies of the territorial Tam of Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia, coordinated by Central Commission for the protection of the mountain environment, also after a meeting at the CAI Feltre section of the territorial structures, Gg and reports to the National Environment Secretariat by the Section".