In February, Sicily declared a drought emergency after many months without rain.
Calabria Governor Roberto Occhiuto followed suit on Friday due to “the serious drinking water shortage” in the province of Crotone and in the metropolitan area of Reggio Calabria.
On Friday, an Italian Navy tanker brought 1200 cubic metres to the Sicilian port of Licata to help province of Agrigento and the area of Gela to cope with the drought emergency.
On Thursday, water authority ANBI had warned in a report that “there will be no water for agriculture” in Central and Southern Italy in three weeks because reserves are running dry.
The report said the situation was particularly alarming in Puglia, Abruzzo and Sicily.
Reserves were also seriously low in Sardinia, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania and Lazio, the report noted.
Last week, MPs from AVS staged a flash-mob protest outside the prime minister’s office at Palazzo Chigi, saying the government has its priorities wrong.
“We are in front of Palazzo Chigi to remind Giorgia Meloni that the climate crisis is not an ideological issue,” said Angelo Bonelli of the Green Europe party.
“It is not a whim, unfortunately, it is a dramatic reality.
“In Sicily, drought is desertifying agricultural fields, farmers are uprooting vineyards and slaughtering animals because there is no water: it’s a dramatic situation.
“Why doesn’t the government intervene? They decided to quickly build the Bridge over the Strait of Messina, but they forgot what the country’s real problems are, starting with the climate crisis and drought.
“We ask Giorgia Meloni for a meeting to talk about our proposals to counter their silence and inertia.”
Scientists say the climate crisis caused by human greenhouse gas emissions is making extreme weather events such as heatwaves, droughts, supercharged storms and flooding more frequent and more intense.
The main driver of the planet heating is the burning of fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal, sales of which generate huge profits for the world’s energy giants.
While Southern Italy has been suffering drought, the north has been hit with storms and torrential rain causing floods and landslides in recent weeks.
Bonelli called on Meloni to “call a cabinet meeting and declare a state of climate crisis”.
“It is not acceptable that, when faced with the disaster we are seeing in Italy, with floods in the north and a dramatic drought in the south … the answer is only silence.”
Deputy Prime Minister and Transport and Infrastructure Minister Matteo Salvini told a question-time session in the Lower House on Wednesday that the drought Sicily is experiencing is a “national emergency”.
He said the government was taking “every action that is useful to overcome critical issues that have been evident for years”.
He said his ministry had completed the preliminary phase of a national plan of infrastructural interventions for the water sector featuring around 950 million euros of funding.
He said Sicily’s share was about 10 per cent of that and “will concern seven interventions for 92 million euros out of a total of 75 water works financed throughout Italy”.
Meanwhile, Civil Protection Minister Nello Musumeci reprimanded Italy’s regional governments, saying only 30 per cent of anti-drought funding made available by the central government has been used so far.
ANSA
