It is not just abnormal heat that creates problems in Italy, especially in the north, but also and above all Dry. So much so that more than a hundred municipalities in the po area seriously risks, in the coming weeks, the water rationing. The request is from Utilitalia, a federation that brings together companies that distribute drinking water, to avoid worsening the shortage and the repercussions on livestock and agriculture. For some municipalities, it is requested to suspend the water at night.
the emergency
The snow in the Alps is gone, the lakes are at historic lows and the temperature is 2 degrees above seasonal averages after a spring with very little rain. In some areas, irrigation has been suspended or regulated, such as in the areas of Rodigino and Ferrarese, where mobile emergency pumps have already been activated. The next few weeks will be essential to understand how the drought emergency will proceed, while 125 municipalities actually risk water suspension overnight. it's about a hundred piedmontese municipalities and at least 25 of province of bergamowhere municipalities will be invited to sign ordinances for the rational use of water.
"In some Italian territories it hasn't rained for 110 days and the drought situation is getting worse," he told ANSA. Meuccio Berselligeneral secretary ofPo River District Authority. In dozens of municipalities in Piedmont and Lombardy “water supply tanks are already in operation because the local reservoirs belong to springs that no longer exist”. Emergency measures were requested for 125 municipalities, 100 in Piedmont and 25 in the province of Bergamo.
I'Drought Observatory, which had already sounded the alarm in recent days, will meet again on Tuesday, June 21, but what hits the Po is the worst drought in the last 70 years. Desertification is consuming increasingly longer and deeper stretches of the river and this has very serious consequences for crops, biodiversity and the hydroelectric sector, even in the immediate future.
What does ARPA say?
“Water rationing will have to be considered. It's not up to us, but we say: let's be careful. Institutions must do it, but so must all citizens”. As Angelo RobottoGeneral manager Harp, on the topic of the water crisis, on the sidelines of the presentation of data for 2021 on the state of the environment in Piedmont. “We are approaching a plausible water crisis season, but we are implementing all possible actions. In the meantime, let's give guidelines to all citizens: let's not waste water – continues Robotto to the microphones of ANSA – Then there are the guidelines of the Piedmont Region, already issued in December. Like Arpa, we intensified the issuance of bulletins, making data available in real time. The mayors, following the guidelines and participating in the work of the Pó basin observatory, have all the indications in time to be able to withstand a period that could be complex ”.
In piedmont between winter and spring there was a record period of 111 days without significant rain, the second longest in the last 65 years. “Let's remember – underlines Robotto – that we have the same snow reserve as at the end of July. We have no reservations, due to the second hottest May in the last 65 years the snow has melted, we must remain vigilant”.
Alarm also in Tuscany
Even in the Tuscan countryside, the risk of a significant reduction in production yields is increasingly real in fields such as sunflowers, maize, wheat and other cereals, but also in olive trees, vegetables and fruits that fall prematurely from the plants due to stress. water. It makes known Coldiretti Toscana. According to the association, one out of every two watercourses has a flow lower than the average for the period, according to data from the Hydrogeological Service of the Tuscany Region and Anbi.