Drought alert, the Po is dry again like last summer
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At the Becca bridge, in the province of Pavia, the Po is -3.2 meters below hydrometric zero, with the banks reduced to sandy beaches. In a nutshell, the Po is dry again like last summer. With the announced absence of significant rainfall for at least a week, the drought alarm is growing in the countryside of Northern Italy. The robust high pressure field arriving in our country, Coldiretti claims, will bring sun instead of rain just on the eve of preparing the land for sowing, when the crops will need water to grow.
The dry Po is not the only national reservoir to worry farmers. The great lakes of Northern Italy today have filling percentages ranging from 35% of Lake Garda to 38% of Lake Maggiore, up to just 20% of that of Como. The result, according to Coldiretti, is putting a third of Made in Italy agri-food at risk, also because half of the national breeding is concentrated in the Po Valley. In 2022, which has just ended, 40% less rainfall fell in the north of the country. On the other side, in Sicily, the damage caused by bad weather is being counted, with campaigns ending up underwater, greenhouses destroyed, trees collapsed and the harvest of vegetables and citrus fruit blocked due to 24 extreme events including water bombs and windstorms that hit the Island in just two days.
“In the face of climate change, it is necessary to implement a flood plan to combat drought and increase the collection of rainwater, which today stands at just 11% – reaffirms once again the president of Coldiretti, Ettore Prandini – together with Anbi and for other public and private subjects we have prepared a series of immediately ready-to-build interventions that guarantee water for civil uses, for agricultural production and to generate clean energy».
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