To understand the seriousness of the water emergency, it is necessary to make a journey of over 1,000 km along the course of the great patient, the Po, and its tributaries.
Where there used to be water, there are now islands of sand.
The largest river in Italy has gone from an average flow of 1,506 cubic meters per second to the current 500 cubic metres.
Crossing the motorway bridges, one notices the "beaches", which now border long stretches of the Po.
On the Ticino at the Bereguardo pontoon bridge, near Pavia, half of the boats now rest on the stones.
There are three and a half million people who could have their water rationed from the taps due to the drought, as denounced by the national association of basin consortia.
Melting snow in the Alps, the great northern lakes are half empty, with the level of Garda at historic lows, the Po suffering, rivers in the center drying up.
On the other hand, in the South the reservoirs are full and must be emptied into the sea.
We need to plug the losses of the aqueducts that lose 40% of the water and build new lakes to accumulate rainwater, we collect only 11%.