ROME. For weeks of record heat, agriculture collapsing and rivers running dry, the government is preparing to give the green light to the state of emergency, in view of an ad hoc decree with the appointment of an extraordinary commissioner and the launch of first procedures to combat drought in Italy. For the moment there will be five regions that will be able to make use of the 36.5 million granted for the state of emergency, but it is not excluded that the provision will also be extended to other areas that have requested it, such as Lazio and, just today, the ‘Umbria. According to what is learned, the Council of Ministers allocated 10.9 million for Emilia Romagna, 4.2 million for Friuli Venezia Giulia, 9 million for Lombardy, 7.6 million for Piedmont and 4.8 million for The region Veneto. Only later will the decree arrive, waiting for the executive to find adequate funds for what now appears to be a real water crisis. According to the data provided by Coldiretti, in fact, there are about 270 thousand farms located in the regions affected by the state of emergency.
Agriculture in the grip of drought: “Another 10 days like this and we lose everything”
FABIO ALBANESE
“A” Made in Italy “agri-food capital that risks disappearing under the blows of drought, with the damage that has already exceeded three billion euros”, explains the association that relaunches the project, carried out together with the Association national reclamation, for the construction of a network of storage basins (real lakes) to get to collect 50% of the water from the rain. “But to do this – says President Ettore Prandini – it is necessary that the question be treated for what it is, that is, a real national emergency”.
Then comes the invitation from the Confederation of farmers to “work on long-term solutions to get out of the emergency logic”. And on the commissioner, the hope is that “a person will be chosen who knows closely the problems of the Italian water network, as well as those of agriculture, and that extraordinary interventions can give relief to our country as soon as possible”.
The drought presents the bill to Piedmont, 121 million are needed to tackle the problem
Alessandro Mondo
The last region to apply for a state of emergency was Umbria, concerned in particular for the state of Lake Trasimeno. The governor, Donatella Tesei, also gave the government willingness to fill the role of deputy commissioner “on the basis of the experience of post-earthquake reconstruction, so as to be able to better manage a series of ordinary and extraordinary interventions that Trasimeno needs “. Tuscany is also preparing to declare a state of calamity, as announced by President Eugenio Giani. The regional water authority speaks of a “very critical” situation of the aquifers, with the drought having reached a “level of severity”. In Friuli Venezia Giulia, on the other hand, the Consortium for Reclamation of the Friulian Plain is preparing to close some canals – that is, the artificial canals – in the event that no rains occur in the next few days. And in Piedmont, precisely for having used the water of a canal to fill his private swimming pool, a citizen of Cerano, a municipality in the province of Novara, risks a fine of up to 30,000 euros for “illegal withdrawal of river water”.
Initially scheduled for 6 pm, the CDM has been postponed due to the visit of Prime Minister Mario Draghi to Canazei.