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This is the story of a river and how it relates to its surroundings.
Earlier chapters in the history of the river tell of great events like the industrial revolution and the First World War. After that terrible time the river was abandoned to its fate for quite some time, but now the story has new life in it: The Water School.
The river Fiume runs through Sostegno di Pasiano near the eighteenth century Villa Saccomani and past the ruins of the old mill that was once driven by the gentle force of the water. Man has lived alongside the river since time immemorial. Mention of it can be found in documents dating back to 1190. A document entitled “Investiture of the Water” of 1442 notes that there was already a “mill and buildings" in Pasiano.
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In the early 1900s an engineer named Saccomanni had a great idea for the area: a hydroelectric power station, inspired by the enthusiasm for technical progress that was sweeping the western world at the time.
The river that had once driven the mill that produced flour for Pasiano’s bread soon became a source of development and wellbeing for the entire region. Unfortunately destruction was soon to follow. The Pasiano hydroelectric station became a strategic target for Italy’s enemies and was destroyed during the Great War. Plans to rebuild it were formulated as early as 1920, but never got further than the design stage. No rebuilding work took place until the 1950s.
In 1966 a terrible flood struck the area. Water overflowed from the neglected basin and flooded surrounding fields to a depth of over three metres in places. |
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For decades after the catastrophe, the old workings of the Pasiano power station stood as a testimony to the breakdown in relations between man and river, and to a serious imbalance throughout the region.
CLABER began the project to restore the Pasiano complex in the early 1990s. The project was an important example of how business really can help improve relations between man and his environment.
In addition to respecting the original appearance of the area, the work also restored the power station’s original river monitoring and control functions.
The banks were cleared and repaired, and the sluice gates restored and equipped with the latest technology, inside the power station itself and downstream at the old mill.
A fish ladder was installed, to avoid disturbing the life cycles of the river’s flora and fauna.
| The work involved not only CLABER, but local communities and institutions too. This was the beginning of our fight to add value to and defend the area’s historical, technical and natural heritage, and to help build a new, more positive way of thinking about water. The proper management of water is an issue of vital importance and the school is a major contribution to it. |
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