Piedmont Governor Alberto Cirio said
Friday that 170 towns in his region have ordered that water only
be used for essential purposes such as for drinking and food
preparation as the severe drought that has gripped Italy,
especially northern regions, escalated.
He added that water supplies were being cut off completely at
night in 10 towns, most of them in the province of Novara,
because of the drought.
"At the moment the situation regarding civilian use of drinking
water is under control but we have a very serious state of
emergency for agriculture," he said.
"Piedmont is in a water crisis that is worse than the 2003 one
and it had the second hottest May since 2009.
"The volume of the Po is 72% lower than it should be.
"The problem regards the source of the water because there is no
snow in the mountains (to melt and feed the river).
"We don't have the same emergency where supplies come from water
tables".
Piedmont and Lombardy have said they will ask the government to
declare a state of emergency due to the drought.
Some areas have not had any rain for over 110 days after one of
the driest winters in decades, which means there is little or no
snow on the nation's mountains.
Meuccio Berselli, the secretary general of the River Po district
authority, said Wednesday that the drought that is hitting
Italy's longest river means that some northern towns are needing
to have water supplies brought in by trucks.
Berselli told ANSA that trucks have been taking water to dozens
of towns in Piedmont and Lombardy because "the local reservoirs
are fed by sources that no longer exist".
More frequent and intense droughts are among the consequences of
human-caused climate change, scientists say.
An official report said Thursday that the drought alert has
spread from the Po valley to central rivers like the Arno, the
Aniene and the Tiber, which have half the water they normally do
at this time of the year.
The ANBI water resource observatory said in a report that this
was "the first season in which the consequences of climate
change are being seen in a massive way on the (Italian)
peninsula".
Farm association CIA said Friday that the lack of water for
irrigation threatened 50% of northern Italy's agricultural
production.
Italy's fish and seafood farming sector is also in danger, due
to higher water temperatures and less rain increasing salinity,
the Feagripesca-Confcooperative association told ANSA.
The mayor of Bracciano, Marco Crocicchi, the lakeside town north
of Rome, said he could not rule out water rationing this summer.
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