The state of emergency for drought is ready to be declared, but it is far from clear when, how and above all what it should be used for, with the Regions in no particular order and the Civil Protection awaiting specific parameters and official requests . Meanwhile, in the absence of rains (although some precipitation is expected over the weekend in the Alpine mountains) the situation is worsening by the hour and is starting to considerably jeopardize the supplies of drinking water in homes.
Regions in no particular order
President Alberto Cirio invites the government to start with a state of emergency from Piedmont, one of the regions where the effects of drought are felt most, waiting for a more comprehensive picture. However, his Lombard colleague Attilio Fontana says that the state of emergency is “a request that we will eventually make when there are specific needs. We will evaluate “. The fact is that, as far as we know, the civil protection has not received any detailed request, with a precise estimate of the damages, except from the Veneto which re-submitted it, although not detailed, after the one rejected in April.
Agriculture: possible compensation to companies
Broadly speaking, however, the emergency interventions that are imagined to be necessary could be of two types. The first concerns agriculture, with the ministry of agricultural policies working on the criteria, together with civil protection. From this point of view, compensation could be provided to companies that have suffered damage due to failure to harvest, “if – says the ministry – the damage caused by drought exceeds 30% of gross salable production”, while efforts are being made to ensure immediate irrigation, knowing full well that solving the problems would require structural interventions.
The drinking water emergency
The second, which however is almost impossible to predict, concerns the drinking water emergency, that is to guarantee the supply to those areas that could remain without water in the houses. The situation, in this case, is very jagged: rationing and a decrease in pressure have already begun in some areas of Piedmont and Lazio, in particular on the Alban Hills and in the province of Frosinone. In some cases it is linked to the emergency of the Po: a large part of the provinces of Ravenna and Ferrara is served by water purifiers who, more or less directly, fish from the great river. If in the final part of the Po the flow rate drops further, problems could begin. A scenario that could only be avoided with further reductions in water withdrawals for agricultural irrigation.
The water war has broken out between the Regions
In short, never as in this very hot June, water is a limited good and therefore more than precious. Often those who have it prefer to save it: in recent days the Aosta Valley has made it known that it will not be able to help Piedmont, while the president of Basilicata Vito Bardi has announced that he is ready to sign a provision to give water to the companies from Basilicata before those of other regions, such as neighboring Puglia. The authority of Lake Garda has been in a dialectically complicated relationship with that of the Po for weeks. In all this there is also the nightmare of forest fires, which at the moment do not represent an emergency, but which if they were to break out would further complicate the situation: Emilia-Romagna, for example, has proclaimed, since Saturday, the phase of maximum attention, hoping that it is only a precaution.