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Thanks to the intervention of AAMAIE, further sources of supply were added from 1910 onwards; in particular: the subalvea aquifer of the Argentina torrent, with its wells and pumping station (1926).

The Tenarda dam basinIn 1963, with the construction of the Tenarda Dam, in the upper Nervia Valley, an artificial reservoir was created, which can hold about 2 million m3 of water, supplying water, by natural gravity, to a large part of the Sanremo territory.

However, in periods of long drought, which had affected Western Liguria for centuries, water was sometimes in short supply, especially on the highest floors of the buildings built after the war, and again the idea of 1876 to bring the waters of the Roja river, which has its source in the Piedmont/Ligurian Alps and is rich in springs, to the coast was taken up again, solving once and for all the water problem that existed not only in Sanremo but also as far as Imperia and Diano Marina and beyond.


The pipelines were built in successive phases: from 1970 to 1981 as far as Capo Verde (the Cape between Sanremo and Arma di Taggia), passing partly by land and partly under the coastal sea; later, still passing by sea, the pipelines reached Andora, completing the work in 1999.

Now the water is there, it is only a question of maintaining the pipelines, especially the older ones, to prevent a commodity that is so precious to the life of coastal towns from being wasted.
Nowadays Sanremo is sown by a large number of fountains and drinking fountains, but we will limit ourselves to dealing only with the "historical" ones and the most characteristic ones which accompanied the years of the last century.

(Sources: free elaboration taken from:
book "Siro Andrea Carli - Sindaco Benemerito 1797 - 1857 " published by the "Comitato Arti e Tradizioni - Sanremo" 1962;
Dr Andrea Gandolfo from "La Grande Storia di Sanremo" fifth volume;
Massimo Scattareggia "Sanremo 1815 - 1915" tourism and territorial transformations;
I would like to thank Dino Taulaigo, Sergio Carbonetto and Giacomo Mannisi for their cooperation;
News and illustrations from WEB searches; historical images from private archives)

 

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