And it’s not just a health issue. The drought is also severely affecting the economy: in less than 20 years it has caused losses of over 120 billion dollars worldwide.
Looking ahead, the number of individuals threatened is set to rise. The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification report predicts that by mid-century the problem could affect more than three-quarters of the world‘s population and that by 2030 some 700 million people worldwide could become climate refugees due to drought.
The only solution: to use the water resources we have wisely, without wasting them. An indication that for now is not taken seriously enough by anyone, first of all by the Italian aqueducts, which lose 42% of the blue gold introduced into the network. But not even from families: with 220 liters per day per inhabitant (and peaks over 230 liters in cities), Italians are the most wasteful of Europeans, where the average revolves around 125 liters (Eureau data).
Agriculture is not far behind in the ranking of wasteful people. According to Eurostat, the ratio between irrigable and irrigated area in Italy is even higher than that of Spain, which has a larger agricultural area and suffers from greater drought.
Furthermore, the intensity of irrigation in Italy is growing: a trend that risks becoming a vicious circle, as the drought increases.In such a complicated context, even targeted interventions can make a difference, such as the “Water in our hands” project, which challenges drought through concrete actions in the area on the initiative of Finish, with the support of the Future Food Institute.