"Data in hand, it is reasonable to believe that, for at least three and a half million Italians, water from the tap can no longer be taken for granted".
This was stated in a press release by Francesco Vincenzi, President of the National Association of Basin Consortia (Anbi), citing data from the Cnr.
According to the National Research Council, between 6% and 15% of the Italian population now lives in territories exposed to severe or extreme drought.
The Anbi Observatory on water resources - reads the note again - weekly records the worsening of a situation, which appears irreparably compromised, even in the face of imminent and in any case hoped for rainfall.
The absence of rain in February once again makes us glimpse the specter of drought also along the
Tyrrhenian areas of central Italy.
The mild temperatures of the current month mean that the already scarce snowpack in the Alpine regions is thinning even further.
According to Anbi, the condition of the Po river is dramatic which, along the entire course, records flows below the historical minimum and obviously lower than 2022. Signs of water suffering are evident in Central Italy, where the decrease in the level of the Tiber river is
constant , from Umbria to the mouth.
The flow of the Aniene is less than half the historical average;
the Sacco and Liri rivers are also declining.
Lake Bracciano remains at a level 14 centimeters lower than in 2022. River levels in Campania are falling, while volumes in the artificial reservoirs of Basilicata undergo a small contraction.
Reserves grow further
For Massimo Gargano, General Manager of Anbi, "it happens that in the South we are forced to release quantities of water into the sea exceeding the capacity of the reservoirs and that in the North we capitalize on only a small part of the already begun melting of the snow. This is not only in the face of images of tankers already in action in Piedmont, but to alarming signals from other parts of Europe: from France, where water rationing is on the eve in some areas of the country, to Great Britain, where it has already begun the quota on the purchases of some agricultural products".
For Gargano "it is necessary to start interventions to increase the water reserves: from the efficiency of existing works to the creation of new multifunctional basins, as envisaged by the Lakes Plan, proposed by Anbi and Coldiretti".