Rosalia Vacca and the Dream of… Stefano Bondesan
West Sesia: guardians of water and territory
Stefano Bondesan, president of the Associazione d'Irrigazione Ovest Sesia, proudly recounts his commitment to the management and maintenance of an invaluable asset that defines this portion of the Po Valley: water. He recalls how Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, understood the importance of regulating and disciplining natural watercourses to optimize rice production. A vision that materialized in the creation of a consortium capable of involving farmers, transforming water into a collective and shared asset.
Bondesan retraces the fascinating history of the Canale Cavour, so named posthumously, built between 1863 and 1866 thanks to the work of 14,000 people. This extraordinary work was immediately celebrated globally as one of the greatest hydraulic engineering achievements of its time.
Today Ovest Sesia is an environmental garrison of primary importance, capable of defending the territory, which extends for over 100,000 hectares, from the risks of hydrogeological instability. With over 3,000 farms served by a network of 9,000 kilometers of irrigation canals, the association does not limit itself to water management: it also represents a cultural reference point, promoting correct information on the sustainable and virtuous use of water resources. Bondesan underlines, in fact, how the "rice system" does not consume water, but retains it and accumulates it like a sponge, releasing it slowly. In this way, water not only supports rice cultivation, but becomes a precious resource for all the territories downstream.
Video table of contents
- The presidency of the West Sesia Association
- The 83 km of the Cavour Canal that flows from south to north with a difference in altitude of just 24 metres
- Birth and evolution of the idea of the Cavour Canal
- From a mistake of Noah the need to build the Farini Canal
- 1859 the flooding of the Vercelli countryside to slow down the advance of the Austrians: the West Sesia and its contribution to the history of Italy
- 100,000 hectares, 3,000 farms, 9,000 km of canals: the numbers of Ovest Sesia
- The right to represent the consortium: the organization in isolated districts and estates
- Water management even in times of drought
- Ovest Sesia is a consortium: it does not have to make profits but only offer services
- The Consortium Statute: regulating water but also creating culture
- Duties of the consortium members
- The advantages of being within the consortium
- Rice cultivation does not "consume" water: our land is a sponge that retains water and releases it slowly
- Changes in rice farming: less pollutants in water and environmental awareness
- Rice, a crop that unites and gives life to a democracy of water: our consortium management system
- "Those of the Palace": here there is no palace, everyone is an active part and involved in the management
- I am passionate about administration
- The emotion of being part of a long and prestigious history
- My mandate has been troubled by many difficult moments but also by a lot of satisfaction
- The Board of Arbiters and the management of conflicts between consortium members without burdening ordinary justice
- The presence of historic water rights on the territory
- Who "takes the water for a walk" water carriers and "navilanti"boatmen
- State-owned canals and canals owned by Ovest Sesia, private canals: maintenance
- The 68 irrigation districts of the Consortium and the 270 isolated estates
- The "discreet" presence of Ovest Sesia in Vercelli and the statue of Cavour
- Cultivation and culture
- The Parlamentino and the democratic life of the Association
Interview information
Country: IT
Region: Piemonte
City: Vercelli
Urls: Associazione Ovest Sesia
Stefano Bondesan
Date of birth: 04-14-1977
City: Vercelli
School: University
Profession: Farmer
Languages: Italiano
Document by: Luca Ghiardo
Video by: Davide Porporato, Luca Ghiardo
Created: 15-11-2024
Questo video fa parte del seguente archivio
Rice stories
Rice stories
Food is a fundamental resource for man and his health, both through the supply of nutrients and the ability to embody traits of human culture that play a leading role in our well-being.
Over time, each territory has built original ways in which to relate to the fruits of its land, enriching them with rituals, symbolic meanings and culinary customs. Much of these relationships have been lost following the years of the economic boom, with the exodus from the countryside to urban centers, with the advent of agriculture for mass production and ultimately with the globalization of markets and the consequent impoverishment of the heritage of biodiversity and ethnodiversity.
The purpose of this archive is to collect evidence relating to the main rice production area in Europe, that is the Po Valley, and to investigate, through the analysis of textual sources and testimonies collected in the field, both what survives of this heritage, and the ways in which which has evolved and reached us, paying particular attention to the explicit and implicit links that bind food and health.
