FLORENCE, NOVEMBER 4- The city of Florence is close to finalizing its candidacy to host the tenth World Water Forum of the United Nations, to be held in March 2024. “There are other important cities as candidates, but our chances are excellent, and we will join forces with other cities in the center of Italy. We feel ready to host the forum because we have demonstrated many positive accomplishments,” said Dario Nardella, Mayor of Florence, during the commemoration of the 53rd anniversary of the 1966 Arno flood.
“Since then we made important investments on water. The river Arno is today much cleaner than it was 10 years ago thanks to the confluence system of dirty water of the left bank and many other interventions regarding the use of water in our territory. We work at 360 degrees and can therefore use this experience as a strength in making Florence a candidate to host this forum, where global strategies are decided,” said the Mayor. Nardella observed how water is a resource we are increasingly forced to speak of, “because we need it, and because it sometimes represents a threat we must know how to avoid”.
The World Water Forum is the biggest international event on the theme of water: a unique platform of events and debates with the main global stakeholders. On November 4th 1966, the Arno flooded in Florence, killing 30 people, 17 in the city and 18 in the province. “There no longer exists an environmental emergency, it has become a daily phenomena for nature to rebel because of our deranged consumption -perhaps unaware- of the planet’s resources”. The flood in Florence was “the first real global phenomena -said the Mayor- which the global population, thanks also to the television, assisted to. Perhaps also for this reason people from all over the world, of different social and cultural origin, came to Florence to help what is still today considered a universal symbol, a city of the world”. (SB@OnuItalia)
