Laterza republish The volume of "Peucetius" published in the fifties, almost a "classic"
did not water the 900 di Puglia
Apulian Aqueduct story written by Michael Viterbo
The identity of the highest and most significant of the twentieth century Apulian history is marked by the vicissitudes of the Aqueduct, one of the most important technical and engineering achievements of the reality not only national, but European. A complete reconstruction of the complex history of this public - which, for decades post-unification, raised a broad political debate in Parliament, local government and the country - was implemented in 1954 by historian Michael Viterbo (Peucetians), Puglia and its Aqueduct. It is now appropriate to re-publisher Laterza. Viterbo, a student originally from Castellana, after the dramatic events of World War II, took the opportunity to examine the choices of the ruling class Giolitti age and years of the scheme, the role of technical intelligentsia, the national and local business decisions and especially the role of democratic Southerner with a loud voice that since the last 800 years raised the question of the necessary infrastructure for the modernization of In charting the way south to the completion of the main channel - that from the Tyrrhenian side of the Apennines (sources of the Sele in Campania) for mechanical action on the Adriatic side brought up the water for about two hundred and fifty kilometers to Villa Castelli (Brindisi) - put in Viterbo light all the complex geological, technical, social and productive territories crossed the Aqueduct. He dwelt on the living conditions of people who placed their hopes in the arrival of the water to settle among other endemic diseases such as cholera and typhoid, and more generally for the improvement of living conditions. The author offered, in a clear overview and an effective narrative of the complex story, not forgetting his initial training and radical republican and sharing of the Battle of Gaetano Salvemini that the Provincial Council of Bari and numerous parliamentarians denounced the delay in the construction of public works, so long awaited by the people, and revealed the plots business-patronage of big business in the North (Ansaldo of Genoa and the company Bombrini) contract for works and the national and local political class. The construction of the aqueduct is an event that involved the interests of the entire region and put out some figures of the political and cultural life, among which the economist Salento Antonio De Viti De Marco, the entrepreneur dauno Pavoncelli Joseph (president of the Consortium), the jurist Alfredo Codacci Pisanelli, deputy Tricase, and Antonio De Tullio, President of the Chamber of Commerce of Bari They, at the beginning of the twentieth century, were at the forefront in rejecting care interventions by the central government and ask for infrastructure projects, railways, waterworks, roads, modernization of production agriculture in the south and to resolve the gap between North and South Viterbo made use of important documentary sources found in the various regional and national libraries and archives to trace the history of the Autonomous Aqueduct Pugliese (EAAP), formed in 1919 with the task of providing water supply of towns, taking on new functions: the construction of the sewerage system to the irrigation works, road pavement to the municipalities. It was an extremely broad scope of skills, requiring a capacity for planning interventions in the region, urban development and rural development capacity of a high scientific and technical activities that focus on land conservation and the environment. The birth of the agricultural experimental station of Foggia for the study of the cultivation and irrigation in the region and the establishment of various laboratories for chemical and biological investigations represent some cutting-edge innovations associated with the intervention dell'EAPP. The volume of Michele Viterbo, which appeared in the early fifties, had inter alia the function of recovering the historical memory region, after the launch of the Bank of the South and on the eve of important new works (dams and large reservoirs) that would face finalize matters of water supply and irrigation also involving the surrounding regions, Basilicata, Campania and Molise. In the history of the aqueduct - enriched some years ago by new studies, like those of Louis Masella - is reflected in the entire history of Puglia Novecento.Michele Viterbo, who died in 1973, was also a promoter of the studies Risorgimento, especially in Puglia. His works, despite the time elapsed, appear still present and remind us - in front of hasty privatization proposals and let down from above - the aqueduct has been and is not only a wealth of everybody, but at the same time , a complex program to win not only "the scorching heat and thirst," but "to irrigate land for industries to give birth, that is to create new sources of wealth and work" and finally to defend the health and environment.
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Vito Antonio Leuzzi - "La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno" of 05 May 2010
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