Love for the river does not stop, in spite of the Coronavirus, the “Lookouts for the Olona” are born

The Olona River remains in our hearts; despite the ban on walking or cycling along the pedestrian path in the valley, even though we will have to wait a little longer to get these very dear places back, interest in protecting the river is important.

It is in the last few days that a desire was expressed, in the Facebook group “Friends of the Olona” (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1714394345466923/), which contains thousands of members who love the river: to take action to safeguard the territory.

The motivations were explained in a post presenting the initiative, by the lawyer Franco Brumana, who is the soul of the group. “Together with other ‘Friends of the Olona’, we’ve opened the group ‘Lookouts for the Olona’ (here is the link) to organise a voluntary service to monitor the state of the river. On several occasions, we intervened following reports by some friends of the Olona, of pollution phenomena. In many of these cases, the quick, detailed report, with indications of the place and time, enabled the appropriate authorities to take action and resolve the problem quickly, or identify the causes and responsibilities. Of course, it wasn’t the continuous polluting of the river resulting from the notorious malfunctioning of the purifiers, which occurs even when the river water looks clear and transparent, but phenomena such as foams, abnormal colouring and smells.”

“Now, if we identify a good number of lookouts for the river, we’ll be able to increase our interventions,” Brumana continued. “It would be important to have at least one lookout for each borough. For some time, we’ve been talking about the sentinel service, but for various reasons, it’s never started. In this regard, the President of Varese Province has also intervened. Now, we’re tired of waiting, so we’re starting with our lookouts. Naturally, we’ll seek the collaboration of the appropriate public authorities and of the town councils.”

The group of volunteers is clearly taking account of the particular situation at the moment, linked to the coronavirus emergency; as they cannot move freely around the territory, they will use these weeks to find volunteers. “Given the limitations as a result of the current epidemic, for now, we’re going to dedicate our time to organising. We’ll provide information on how to make the reports more effective, and develop the most appropriate procedures, also by preparing forms to make reports to the competent authorities,” Brumana said.