The first water distribution studies in the Great Bonification Area of Ferrara, date back to 1905, when the Consortium Chief Engineer, Pietro Pasini, on the occasion of the rebuilding of the hydraulic reclamation, underlined the serious consequences that could have derived to the lands by subtracting to them an excessive quantity of water in the humid periods; the water subtracted would have subsequently failed in the periods of drought. He also denounced the deficiencies that were found in these periods, where the water lacked even for the cattle watering. Chief Engineer Pasini signalled the great benefit that the introduction of great volumes of water would have made to the soils modified with the groundwater recharge and he indicated Po River as the most suitable source for the derivation.

In his report, Ch Eng. Pasini rejected the construction of sewers in the river embankment, instead, he considered more convenient to choose a siphon derivation system, considering that Po River also dominates the depressed reclamation basin even during lean periods.

The plant, in addition to having architectural merit elements, represents an important step in the environmental improvement policy, made based on Ch Eng. Pasini’s hydraulic criteria, author of the “Pasini method”, internationally known as “Italian method”, for defining and calculate the hydraulic parameters necessary for the design of mechanical lands reclamation.

Following these suggestions, the Consortium provided for the construction of four siphons that were built in Guarda, Cologna (Contuga), Berra and Ariano, to have a proper distribution of water intakes in the consortium perimeter nearby Po River, each siphon supplied water from 200 to 205 l/s according to the lean of the river.

Project System and Heritage Composition

The Berra irrigation plant is the main water deriving centre from the Po River of the Ferrara Plain Consortium.  The diverting set consists of eight steel pipes, each one with an internal diameter of 1 meter, placed at the edge of the right bank of the Po. The highest part of these pipes is buried 5 meters below the top of the river embankment to not exceed the maximum height of allowable intake for the operation of siphons. Pipes total measure is 91.15 m. The siphon operates with a static suction head equal to 6 meters in case of minimum water flow.  The flow meter Venturi pipe is located near the control room of the gate valves at the downstream section of the siphons.

The water level for the upstream section of the "Derivatore di Berra" canal and the surrounding reclamation network must be 0.5 - 1 m above sea level, to have a regular operation of the derivation system; the minimum water level (at which the Po can reach in the lean period) is only 35 cm above sea level. Under these conditions, it would be impossible to trigger the siphon, so it was chosen to build a large tub just downstream of the siphons, with an altitude such that it could always create a sufficient hydraulic prevalence for triggering the siphons.

For the reasons showed above, downstream of the tank, it was necessary to build a hydraulic lifting system to bring the water to the regular canal derivation altitude. The hydraulic lifting system consists of four horizontal axis propeller pumps coupled to four electric motors. The flow rate of the single pumps is 6 mc/s with a prevalence of 1.5 m.

Water Heritage

The structure made outstanding contribution to enhancing food production, livelihood opportunities, rural prosperity, and poverty alleviation in a region;

Because of the irrigation siphon intake systems from Po river, (Berra, Contuga, Guarda and Garbina), the large land reclamation work (begun in the second half of the 1800s on more than 54,000 ha), and received greater impetus thanks to the possibility of supplying good quality water, used in the first instance for the production of fodder for animals employed in the agricultural fields and later for the vital irrigation supply services of over 40,000 ha. The plant, managed by the Consorzio di Bonifica Pianura di Ferrara (Ferrara’s Plain Land Reclamation Consortium), is still in operation and it is the most important of the province in terms of water suction from the Po river (around 200 million cubic meters/year).

The structure bears the stamp of a cultural tradition or a civilization of past;

The buildings of the Berra Siphons (and of Guarda) are still framed in the Umbertino style, but the top size of the buildings, the pillars-walls and the colours also have elements from Art Nouveau.

Present State of Conservation

The Berra irrigation plant had minor damages due the 2012 earthquake.