Govt called on to declare climate emergency amid drought crisis

(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 27 - Italy's Green-Left Alliance (AVS) on Saturday called on Premier Giorgia Meloni's government to declare a climate state of emergency as southern and central regions struggle to cope with a major drought.
    In February Sicily declared a drought emergency after many months without rain and Calabria Governor Roberto Occhiuto followed suit on Friday due to "the serious drinking water shortage" in the province of Crotone and in the metropolitan area of Reggio Calabria.
    On Friday an Italian Navy tanker brought 1,200 cubic metres to the Sicilian port of Licata to help province of Agrigento and the area of Gela to cope with the drought emergency.
    On Thursday water authority ANBI had warned in a report that "there will be no water for agriculture" in central and southern Italy in three weeks because reserves are running dry..
    The report said the situation was particularly alarming in Puglia, Abruzzo and Sicily.
    Reserves were also seriously low in Sardinia, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania and Lazio, the report noted.
    Scientists say the climate crisis caused by human greenhouse gas emissions is making extreme weather events such as heatwaves, droughts, supercharged storms and flooding more frequent and more intense.
    Although there are many sources of the greenhouse gases that are causing global heating, the main driver is the burning of fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal, sales of which generate huge profits for the world's energy giants.
    While southern Italy has been suffering drought, the north has been hit by the other side of the climate crisis, with storms and torrential rain causing floods and landslides in recent weeks.
    AVS MP Angelo Bonelli called on Meloni to "call a cabinet meeting and declare a state of climate crisis, because it is not acceptable that, when faced with the disaster we are seeing in Italy, with floods in the north and a dramatic drought in the south, which is causing crops to disappear in an incredible agricultural disaster, the answer is only his silence".
    Deputy Premier and Transport and Infrastructure Minister Matteo Salvini told a question-time session in the Lower House on Wednesday that the drought Sicily is experiencing is a "national emergency", He said the government was taking "every action that is useful to overcome critical issues that have been evident for years".
    He said his ministry had completed the preliminary phase of national plan of infrastructural interventions for the water sector featuring around 950 million euros of funding.
    He said Sicily's share was about 10% of that and "will concern seven interventions for 92 million euros out of a total of 75 water works financed throughout Italy".
    He added that extraordinary national commissioner will propose a plan of urgent interventions to face the emergency.
    This week Civil Protection Minister Nello Musumeci reprimanded Italy's regional governments, saying only 30% of anti-drought funding made available by the central government for them has been used so far.
    . (ANSA).