The Metropolitan City of Milan is ready to receive the funds provided by the NRRP, also thanks to CAP Group. On 14 December, the local authority that oversees the municipalities of the Metropolitan City and the public operator of the area's aqueduct, sewerage and treatment services, two of the first public bodies in Italy, signed an agreement to present a targeted action plan for implementing the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) by 6 March 2022.
Over 200 actions have already been planned, for a total of more than 81 million euros: projects in the field of hydraulic invariance, aimed at mitigating the impact of climate change and the risks of hydrogeological instability in the metropolitan area. And there’s more. There is also a programme for the rehabilitation and safeguarding of the Seveso river, worth more than 150 million euros.
The public cooperation agreement between the Metropolitan City of Milan and the CAP Group was in fact signed just 15 days after the Ministry of the Interior approved Decree no. 152. The Decree defines the implementation criteria under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, according to which the Metropolitan Cities are responsible for identifying actions eligible for investments worth no less than 50 million euros in projects relating to Integrated Urban Plans. All this is done through agreements with local bodies, which will become implementing parties in charge of carrying out the works to be selected by the Ministry by 5 April 2022.
The agreement aims to encourage the execution of works, interventions and programmes in various fields, including the design of green infrastructures and the regeneration of the urban fabric, necessary to combat climate change and hydrogeological instability. The aim is to safeguard the areas most at risk of landslides or flooding and to enhance the local area through redevelopment, monitoring and prevention.
The Lombardy Region has set an example in this regard, as it was the first region in Italy to approve, at the end of 2017, Regional Regulation 7/2017 on hydraulic invariance, which every Lombardy municipality must apply to building, urban planning and new construction projects to ensure the same permeability of the soil even after the work has been carried out. The Italian hydraulic system is one of the most delicate areas of land management in the country. And Lombardy, together with Veneto, has the highest rate of imperviousness in Italy, at 13%. On the strength of its know-how in implementing innovative sustainable urban drainage systems, the CAP Group has identified 210 hydraulic invariance projects for areas with a high material vulnerability index (> 97.1) distributed over 53 municipalities and already approved by the municipal authorities.
One of the most important projects of public urgency on which the CAP Group, the other water managers in the area and the Metropolitan City of Milan have been working for years has been added to the list of priorities for the territory: safeguarding the banks of the Seveso River to the benefit of the environment, safety and the health of citizens with a series of infrastructures such as detention basins, positioned at the most strategic points to contain rainwater and prevent periodic flooding. The redevelopment, worth more than 151 million euros, is part of a macro-project that envisages a long-term investment of 490 million euros by 2033.
The agreement, which will run until 2026, i.e. the time frame in which the NRRP funds are to be put to use, assigns the Metropolitan City of Milan the role of project manager, with the task of coordinating the work planned by the CAP Group under the NRRP, ensuring that the projects selected by 5 April 2022 are carried out within the agreed timeframe and that the allocated resources are managed correctly and effectively. For its part, the CAP Group becomes the implementing party for the works and will provide the Metropolitan City of Milan with a periodic, final and overall report on its work, which will consist of preliminary (technical and economic feasibility), final and executive planning.