«Data in hand, it is reasonable to believe that, for at least three and a half million Italians, water from the tap can no longer be taken for granted». This was declared by Francesco Vincenzi, president of Anbi, the national association of basin consortia (Anbi), citing data from the Cnr: according to the National Research Council, a percentage between 6% and 15% of the Italian population now lives in territories exposed to severe or extreme drought.
In short, a wave of disturbances will also be arriving towards the end of the weekend, but this will certainly not be enough to change the fate of a situation which, the Anbi Observatory on water resources recalls, is now irreparably compromised. The mild temperatures of the current month mean that the already scarce snowpack in the Alpine regions is thinning even further. The Po registers flow rates below the historical minimum and obviously lower than 2022. In some areas of Piedmont, tankers have already entered into action. The absence of rain in February once again makes us glimpse the specter of drought also along the Tyrrhenian areas of central Italy. The decrease in level of the Tiber river is constant from Umbria to the mouth. The flow of the Aniene is less than half the historical average. Lake Bracciano is 14 centimeters lower than in 2022.
Drought is a stone guest that the rest of Europe is also dealing with: from France, where water rationing is on the eve in some areas of the country, to Great Britain, where quotas have already begun on the purchases of some agricultural products: tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, lettuce, broccoli and cauliflower. In France, recalls Coldiretti, the absence of rain for over a month is putting the perfume industry at risk and restrictions on the use of water could be triggered as early as March, so much so that the Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, announced that 60 new agricultural water projects will be operational by June. Finally, in Spain, due to the lack of rainfall, there are no acorns to feed the pigs destined for Pata negra ham.
In Italy, with the Po dry, 1/3 of the made in Italy agri-food that is produced in the Po Valley is at risk, where even half of the national livestock is concentrated. In our country, recalls Coldiretti, there is a national water deficit of 30% which rises to 40% in Northern Italy.