“The Blue Flag is an important recognition, but to really make it fly, the city needs to be governed, not abandoned.”
This is what City Councillor Eugenio Riccio declares, who this morning sent a written report to Mayor Nicola Fiorita to denounce a serious situation of decay in the seaside district of Catanzaro, with concrete risks for the bathing season and for the overall image of the city.
Riccio points out, in particular, the condition of the mouth of the Corace river, which has shifted several hundred meters towards Lido, making a stretch of beach inaccessible and creating an area closed to bathing for environmental and health reasons.
“Numerous citizens – explains Riccio – have reported to me the proliferation of insects and the presence of unpleasant odors. It is a health and hygiene problem, but also a direct blow to the enjoyment of our coast.”
Added to this is the situation of the canal known as Fosso Barbaruzza, from which constant miasmas emanate, caused by sewage, right next to two bathing establishments.
“That area – Riccio emphasizes – should be a flagship of our tourism and instead represents yet another snapshot of administrative neglect.”
The councillor has urgently requested reclamation and maintenance interventions, the restoration of the Corace’s groyne to its original position, and the covering of the bed of the Barbaruzza canal, in order to definitively resolve the environmental and hygiene issues.
“While I deal with the real problems of the city – says Riccio – there is always some councillor, a ventricle of Mayor Fiorita, who rushes to respond by dictation, acting as a public defender. I suggest they change their tune: they are obsessed with the fascist twenty years, or with my political positioning and that of my group. When they are not hiding behind ideological polemics, they improvise as defenders of Palestine, even displaying a flag on the balcony of the Town Hall. International battles are fine, but meanwhile the city is sinking into decay.”
Even harsher is his judgment of the Mayor:
“Three years after his election, Nicola Fiorita has shown he has neither a vision nor a team. It is now clear that he is not capable of administering the city. We are faced with a Catanzaro that is blocked, disoriented, left without direction or answers.”
“If we really want to honor the Blue Flag – Riccio concludes – let’s start by rolling up our sleeves, cleaning the sea, fixing the environmental issues and restoring dignity to our coastline. The rest is just rhetoric and political improvisation.”