“The government is working to tackle the drought. We are experiencing the most serious water crisis of the last 70 years, the water crisis has two factors: a rainfall deficit in recent years, climate change but then there are structural causes such as poor maintenance. of the basins and of the network entrusted to the concessionaires with a dispersion of water that is equal to 30% while in other EU countries it is 5%, 6%. An emergency plan is needed and from Monday we are ready to approve the plans of the regions “. This was stated by Prime Minister Mario Draghi at a press conference
Meanwhile, the drought is hitting central Italy. “The situation is very difficult. The Tiber at times seems swampy, with still water, has the minimum vital flow that the Corbara dam allows and in some places it flows very low, even one and a half meters below average levels. “. Erasmo D’Angelis, the general secretary of the Tiber Basin Authority, says so, when asked by Ansa. “The situation is getting worse but we still have no critical issues with regard to the drinking water supply. We are not yet on the alert level but the situation is getting worse: the levels of the rivers are decreasing” continues DE Angelis who stresses that “the other rivers are all under the average levels “compared to the” 2017 drought “. “The same thing is true for lakes and given that we have another 10 days of extreme heat on the horizon, with rising temperatures, we have evident risk situations”, reiterated the secretary general, adding that the Authority will monitor “constantly” and will the “day by day” checks.
Without snow, the lakes are gradually emptying. This was underlined by the Anbi Observatory (National Association of Consortia for the Management and Protection of the Territory and Irrigated Water: “the volume of water needed by Lake Maggiore to return on average is 2,527 million cubic meters, despite its level being grew almost 12 centimeters in 7 days “, thanks to the rainfall.
The other large northern basins are all in decline and abundantly below average with the Lario, which actually registers only 11.2% of the filling.
“Disconcerting” is the comparison with the volumes possessed in recent years. “It is a situation that exemplifies the calming function of large basins, which are now insufficient, however, to respond by themselves to the needs of territories burned by drought, creating a critical situation also from an environmental point of view. For this, it is necessary to the aid of a network of medium-small and multifunctional basins such as those envisaged by the Laghetti Plan, which we proposed together with Coldiretti “, comments Francesco Vincenzi, president of Anbi.
Slight increase in flow for the Po, thanks to the abundant rains that have fallen in these days in the Aosta Valley. In Pontelagoscuro (Ferrara), it has risen to 200 cubic meters per second, when, however, the salt wedge alarm is already triggered at 450 cubic meters / sec and the marine entrance is now reported 30 kilometers from the mouth. “The increase in range it does not solve the problem of the very serious water deficit in the Great River, but avoids, for now, a stop to withdrawals, which would cause enormous damage to agriculture “, explains Anbi.
Source: Ansa
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