| The paper

Ecologists, but. We want flood relief tanks now, but don’t do them here. Flood works are urgent, but elsewhere. We need land maintenance, but the solution is quite another. Action is urgently needed, but this is not the development model we want. The problem needs to be fixed right away, but that’s not the problem. The story of the Seveso river in Lombardy is an exemplary model of Nimby ecology, a rather filthy stream about fifty kilometers long which, from the hills of Como, passes underground in Milan and flows into the Lambro. It is a torrential river for which everyone immediately demands major interventions, yes, but elsewhere. Regularly when it rains more than usual, for decades – before slipping into the underground tunnels of Milan where he was imprisoned – the Seveso overflows and floods northern districts such as Niguarda, Testi and Maggiolina. Mud, basements filled with muddy water on which garbage floats. In a much smaller area, it is the horrendous images we see on television that we cannot resign ourselves to. The solution? Obvious: upstream of the areas where the Seveso overflows, it is necessary to build with 140 million some expansion tanks, lamination tanks and dams that hold back the angry waters and let them flow slowly.