Because there is a drought alarm again in Italy

There is a drought alarm in Sicily and Sardinia.
Since the first days of 2024, the Anbi, the national association of consortia for the management and protection of the territory and irrigation water, has raised the alarm about a water emergency in the islands.
According to the European Drought Observatory (EDO) of the Copernicus Emergency Management Service, 45% of Sicily is currently under drought alert conditions.
The permanent observatory on water consumption in Sicily has issued an orange alert, warning that if the situation persists, the alert would easily change to red.
In Sicily, water rationing has been implemented in 39 municipalities in the areas of Palermo, Agrigento and Caltanissetta.
The water crisis is caused by the lack of rainfall and the anomalous heat recorded in 2023.
But from January 12th, more than 50 Sicilian municipalities will be subject to water rationing.
In the middle of winter the region is already forced to reduce supplies, and Legambiente complains about "years of appeals that have gone unanswered".
Faced with such a picture, it is appropriate to clarify and understand what is happening in the islands and what the real cause of the drought alarm is.
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Siciliacque – the company that manages the region's water service – was in fact forced to reduce the water flow by 10% and in some cases by 15% after weeks in which the reserve basins recorded water flows lower than the level of guard.
The supply of Siciliacque has already gone from 50 liters per second to 30 and a reduction in consumption by citizens is now necessary.
And if the rains don't fall on the Region soon, the situation will only get more complicated.
According to the Basin Authority, Sicily is the Italian region that records the highest number of water losses, in a territory which due to its natural conformation and climate does not favor an abundance of water.
Giuseppe Amato, water resources manager for Legambiente Sicilia, warned that the only hope for the Region is that it snows soon and in large quantities at high altitudes and rains in the plains, "only in this way will we be able to consider the danger averted, at least for this year , but this has been the situation for years and for years we have been raising the alarm without being listened to".
Drought, the causes of the water emergency: climate change The water emergency is just one of the many effects of the climate emergency, a problem that can no longer be ignored by the institutions.
Giuseppe Amato himself recalled that the risk of drought was now an announced disaster: "we've been saying it for years, but they always make us do Cassandras".
Now, however, we can no longer ignore the "environment" topic: the climate crisis is here and it is evident, with all its terrible consequences for the environment and for the citizens who live in the areas affected by extreme climatic events.
The water emergency is the result of an extremely dry autumn, with almost no rainfall and temperatures above the seasonal average.
This is stated in various reports created by the Basin Authority and released by the Sicilian Regional Presidency.
Before the rains of the last few days, there had been 3 months of extreme drought with almost no rain and temperatures that broke every record: on 1 December, the water reserves in the reservoirs were 45.6 million cubic meters lower (-13 %) compared to a year earlier and currently around 54 and a half million cubic meters are missing based on the most recent averages.
As explained by Amato: In Sicily more than in other regions of Italy the consequences of climate change are clearly felt, to which the hand of man is added: in 150 years 95% of natural wetlands have been lost, not nothing like this has happened anywhere in Europe.
Amato's complaint also concerns the conditions of the artificial basins, half filled with mud due to the lack of "attention on the slopes of the rivers that bring water to the lake".
Not to mention the often dilapidated distribution pipes which lead to a large dispersion of water into the ground.
A problem that aggravates the current water emergency.
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