As of: February 28, 2024, 5:57 a.m
By: Johannes Welte
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Italy's south is drying out.
Agriculture in Sicily in particular is suffering from record drought.
A disaster was declared.
Desperate farmers are diverting water from contaminated lakes into their fields.
Palermo – For many holidaymakers, Sicily is a holiday paradise.
The idyllic town of Taormina, the volcanic giant Etna and turquoise beaches attract tourists in droves to Italy.
At the same time, the largest island in the Mediterranean is the orchard of Europe.
But paradise is drying up.
There was actually supposed to be heavy rain in the winter, but it largely failed to materialize.
The water level on Lake Garda is rising again.
Sicily's government declares a disaster - Italy's south is drying out
At the urging of Agriculture Councilor Luca Sammartino, the regional government under President Renato Schifani declared a state of natural disaster across the island in mid-February.
Due to a lack of water resources, Sicily is the only region in Italy and one of the few in Europe that is in the red drought zone, reports the
gds.it
portal .
This is a weather situation like that in Morocco and Algeria.
The Pozillo Reservoir is almost empty.
The gray-brown area is otherwise covered by water.
© Mino Giacalone
Last year was already very hot and dry, forest fires burned until late autumn, and firefighting planes filled up water in the already shrinking reservoirs.
In Sicily, the second half of 2023 was the driest in over a century: around 220 millimeters of precipitation was missing from September to December.
The driest period in over 100 years
According to greenreport.it,
in December alone
a rainfall deficit of up to 96 percent was recorded in some places.
The province of Enna in the center of the island was missing a total of 81.5 percent and the province of Catania 80 percent.
Autumn and winter in Sicily were drier than ever since measurements began in 1921. Even the largest reservoir, Lago Pozzillo, hardly has any water left.
Just two percent of a possible 150 million cubic meters of water is still available there.
Livestock breeders in particular hardly have any hay left for their animals.
And citrus fruits reduce in size due to heat and low rainfall, production costs increase.
“The grape harvest is also affected, we have an average regional decline in production of over 40 percent,” says the Coldiretti Sicily agricultural association, and in the province of Trapani even by 70 percent.
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Only in Morocco and Algeria is it as dry as Sicily
“Due to a lack of water resources, Sicily is the only region of Europe in the red zone.
The meteorological situation of the last few months has led to a significant decrease in the amount of water in the reservoirs, so that regular irrigation of the land to replace the lack of rain is no longer possible,” says Agriculture Councilor Sammartino.
“We are aware of the critical problems and are developing all the necessary measures to support and protect the agricultural and livestock sectors as well as our country’s products.” A crisis team is now supposed to help deal with the water shortage.
Coldiretti speaks of “one of the most serious tragedies our region has ever experienced”.
And the spokesman for the Italian Green Party, Angelo Bonelli, attacks those in power in Rome: “While the government is fighting ecological change, a drought catastrophe was declared in Sicily in February.
If we don't make peace with the climate, we will have no food and lose agricultural jobs.
Sure, right, Giorgia Meloni?”
Sicily is in danger of becoming almost three-quarters a desert
But it probably gets worse: some data collected by the Greenway and Ecogest Climate Change Study Center (CSCC) in Geneva shows that by 2050, an increase in surface temperature for the marine and coastal waters of Sicily is expected to be between 1.2 and 1.3 degrees Celsius and a rise in sea level of around seven centimeters are expected.
“In Sicily, the ongoing warming process is one of the most obvious, not only in Italy,” explains Valerio Molinari, President of the CSCC.
There is a risk of desertification on 70 percent of the island's territory.
The water of the Lago Arancio reservoir is contaminated with red algae and is now being used for irrigation purposes.
© Giuseppe Tucci / Favebook
One of the measures to combat the lack of water in agriculture was the permission in mid-February to use water from the Arancio reservoir to irrigate fields.
Last year, the use of the dam's water for agriculture was banned because red algae, which is considered poisonous, had spread there.
Desperate fight for water from irrigation reservoir contaminated with toxic algae
After farmers practically begged for it, use of the water was allowed again on February 15th - after new samples were taken on January 21st.
It was said that the pollution had fallen below the limit values.
The Agrigento provincial health department recommended
“the use of personal protective equipment suitable for irrigation to protect the workers involved and avoid irrigation by misting,” according to the
Ansa news agency.
The water of the Lago Arancio reservoir is contaminated with red algae and is now being used for irrigation purposes.
© Giuseppe Tucci / Favebook
According to corrieredisciacca.it,
red algae were again detected during a new sampling on February 18th
.
The potentially toxic cyanobacterium produces microcystin, which is considered a liver-damaging and carcinogenic substance to humans and animals.
The concentration of red algae is still being determined, and chemical analyzes by the regional environmental protection authority are still in progress.
“But the quantities recorded are already significant,” the report says.
There is still no talk of a new irrigation stop.
As early as 2023, Sicily had to resort to drastic measures – due to a natural disaster.