A first inter-ministerial meeting for the drought emergency will be held on March 1 at Palazzo Chigi, chaired by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
The task force will have to evaluate the initiatives to launch a short-term action plan and medium-long term planning.
This was decided by the government, according to what is learned, after the report in the Council of Ministers of the Minister for Civil Protection and Marine Policies, Nello Musumeci.
The meeting will be attended by representatives of the Ministries of the Environment, Infrastructure, Agriculture, Cohesion, as well as the Civil Protection.
The decision, it is explained, was adopted by the government after reports by the Minister for Civil Protection Nello Musumeci and colleagues Francesco Lollobrigida, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, Luca Ciriani and Raffaele Fitto.
Three and a half million Italians risk having their water rationed from the taps.
The alarm was launched today by Anbi, the national association of basin consortia.
The Minister of the Environment, Gilberto Pichetto, agrees: "The problem of drought is serious", he says, and announces that a table on the water emergency will be held next week at Palazzo Chigi.
"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", declared the president of Anbi, Francesco Vincenzi.
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 publishes a disheartening bulletin of the crisis:
On the other hand, in the South the reservoirs are full, and they have to be emptied into the sea.
For basin consortia, it is necessary to immediately plug the holes in the aqueducts (they lose 40% of the water), and build new lakes to accumulate rainwater (we collect only 11%).
"The problem of drought is serious - echoes Minister Pichetto -. We have half the snow compared to the average. We find ourselves with watercourses, lakes and reservoirs in a very critical state, hydroelectric basins in extreme difficulty" .
His colleague in the Civil Protection, Nello Musumeci, said in an interview that "a healthy and realistic rationing plan" is needed.
Pichetto announced that next week (probably Wednesday 1st) a table on the water emergency will be held at Palazzo Chigi.
With him will be colleagues Matteo Salvini in Transport and Francesco Lollobrigida in Agriculture.
The seriousness of the water situation ended up overshadowing the announcement that the government cared most about: the Ministry of the Environment has sent its proposal for a decree on energy communities to Brussels.
After the OK from the European Commission, the provision will enter into force.
Energy communities are groups of people, businesses, cooperatives, local authorities, associations, religious bodies that come together to self-produce and self-consume electricity from renewable sources.
The advantages are many: savings on bills, reduction of pollution and emissions, security and energy independence of the country.
The decree provides tariff incentives and grants.
Minister Pichetto aims to give birth to at least 15,000 communities throughout Italy.