From the government a commissioner and an extraordinary water plan for the drought emergency

A decree law on the drought emergency to designate an ad hoc commissioner and a control room to deal with the water emergency. These are two of the measures decided today at Palazzo Chigi by the table on the water emergency, chaired by the premier Giorgia Meloniwhich was attended by ministers Dense (Pnrr and European affairs), Piquet Fratin (Environment), Salvini (Infrastructure), Lollobrigida (Agriculture), Musumeci (Civil Protection and Sea) and the Undersecretaries of the Prime Minister Mantuan And Morelli.

At the end of the summit, Palazzo Chigi released a note which reads that “During the table on the water crisis it was agreed to address the water issue in the face of the ongoing drought by setting up a control room between all the ministries concerned, to define an extraordinary national water plan in agreement with the Regions and local bodies, to identify the priorities for intervention and their adequate planning, also using new technologies” and “launching an awareness campaign on the responsible use of water resources”.

THE SPECIAL “DRY ITALY

In recent days there have been numerous proposals from environmental associations and companies in the water sector that have asked the government for immediate interventions and with a long-term plan that takes into account the impact of climate change. Utilitalia, the federation of public service companies, which supplies water services to 80% of the Italian population, has drawn up eight proposals and said it is ready to make investments of around 11 billion euros over the next 3 years, but reiterated that “synergistic actions are needed that also involve the agricultural world and interventions that can no longer be postponed on the governance front”.

Even Legambiente has drawn up its eight proposals underlining that we can no longer speak of an emergency but of a situation that will increasingly characterize our territory”. The environmental association had recalled that with over 33 billion cubic meters of water withdrawn for all uses every year Italy is overall a country with medium-high water stress according to the WHO, since it uses 30-35% of its renewable water resources, with an increase of 6% every 10 years.