The Italian regions are clamoring for a state of emergency due to drought. And while they are waiting for a strong response from the government, especially in the North they have begun to move in random order with the first rationing measures. From the most rigid municipal ordinances against the use of water at night, to the mildest appeals to the civic sense of citizens, to the prayers for the rain of Manzoni’s memory, announced by the archbishop of Milan, Mario Delpini.
The first decree
In Emilia Romagna yesterday evening, Tuesday 21 June 2022, President Stefano Bonaccini was the first governor to sign the decree for the declaration of the regional state of emergency, a decision that was shared by the control room on the water crisis they took the managers of the integrated water service and the interregional agency for the river Po leave. At the moment, no extraordinary measures will be taken: “The situation is very complex, but at this moment in our region we still do not have an alarm level such as to put drinking water is being discussed, ”said the regional councilor for the environment, Irene Priolo.
Ordinances in Emilia-Romagna
But already today all the municipalities of Emilia-Romagna are invited to issue ordinances for the reduction of unnecessary uses, for example washing the car. The main concerns, also from the point of view of drinking water, are above all the provinces of Ravenna and Ferrara: emergency measures for the aqueduct have already been decided in the latter city.
Lombard rivers and lakes
Lombardy is resisting for the moment, despite the difficulties of its rivers and lakes: “For now there is still no talk of rationing for civil uses – said the president of the Region, Attilio Fontana – for now we are intervening to solve the problem in ‘agricultural use’. In fact, in the Lombard fields, water is running out, with estimates of damage to agriculture that already today would amount to 2 billion euros: “All the availability we have given is to cover the needs of the agricultural sector for the next ten days »Said the legal representative of Enel, Giovanni Rocchi. The regional councilor for local authorities, mountains and small municipalities, Massimo Sertori, confirms the tight deadlines: “The allocation of water supplies is almost zero: everything is played in the next 8-9 days, the goal is to save at least the first harvest. It is clear that when the harvest goes down the drain because there is no water, a state of calamity will be asked and we as the Lombardy Region are absolutely ready to ask for it “.
Waste water for irrigation purposes
The Lombard Councilor for Agriculture, Fabio Rolfi, meanwhile, announced that he had started a table to study the possibility of recovering wastewater for irrigation purposes. «We need – explained the commissioner – a national plan linked to the water catchment, both through the recovery of the former quarries for irrigation accumulation and with the catchment of large rivers. I am thinking, for example, of the 350 million euro renaturation project of the Po, included in the NRP ». In Piedmont, the region most affected by drought to date, water has already been rationed to over 200 municipalities and the governor Alberto Cirio since Monday has begun to speak of “red alert”. A permanent crisis table has been set up in the Region, which also involves the concessionaires of the hydroelectric basins, some of which have already activated flaring for agricultural uses.