Drought warning
It is not only the Covid emergency that causes great concern for the red areas: it is also the same for water availability, negatively affected by a winter so far lacking in significant rainfall. The comparison with last year is pitiless, when the coldest months were characterized by important weather phenomena which, in addition to the inconveniences, however guaranteed rain, which was essential to replenish the basins to meet the needs of the summer period.
The evidence comes from the antipodes of the Peninsula: to the north the level of the large lakes remains well below average with the exception of Garda; the deficit in filling compared to last year is significant, but the differential with 2020 is even greater (Lake Maggiore: 24% today, but 89% in January 2020). The trend is similar in some southern basins: in one week, in Basilicata, the availability of water increased by about 6 million cubic meters, which, however, had been 50 a year ago; same trend in nearby Puglia: almost 5 million cubic meters more against mc. 14 in 2021. This slowdown in accumulation means that the differential on water volumes, retained a year ago, is negative: -Mmc 4.01 in the Lucan reservoirs, -Mmc. 4.65 in the Apulian ones.
Rivers in great suffering
Returning to the North, all rivers are suffering (the only exception being the Dora Baltea in Valle d’Aosta).
The flows of the Po are further decreasing, coming down to full summer levels: in drought 2021, similar fluences (in Pontelagoscuro: 790.3 cubic meters per second; last year they were mc./sec. 1829.8 and the average for the period is mc./sec. 1252) occurred at the end of June , while the year before they were registered in mid-July.
“The situation, which week after week is taking shape especially in northern Italy, leads us to ask for the urgent activation of the consultation tables to identify, in compliance with regulatory priorities, the necessary compatibility between the multiple interests weighing on the water resource” : this was urged by Francesco Vincenzi, President of the National Association of Consortia for the Management and Protection of the Territory and Irrigation Waters (ANBI).
The Piedmontese rivers are all in decline (Tanaro: mc./sec. 26.2 against mc./sec. 105 in January 2021) or stable at very low levels (Varaita: mc./sec. 1.5), while in great suffering are those from Emilia, candidates to be the first to enter the red zone, where, however, are already the Nure (flow rate: mc / sec 0.1!) and the Secchia, whose current flow rate (mc / sec 1.9) is well below the monthly historical minimum (mc / sec 22.3) . The volume of water retained in the Piacenza reservoirs is also low: Mmc. 4.26 out of a total capacity of 21.5 million cubic meters.
The Adda rivers, in Lombardy and Adige, in Veneto, are also at their lowest in recent years, as is the Piave.
If the Arno, in Tuscany, stands at the average monthly levels, however, the collapses of flow are reported for the Sieve and above all Serchio rivers. with a flow rate of mc./sec. 23 against a January average of mc./sec. 59.93.
The volumes of water transported to the Marche riverbeds are also decreasing (the rivers are all under the 2021 flow rates) and Lazio (the Sacco and Liri-Garigliano rivers are at their lowest since 2017); in Umbria, the December resumption of rains does not correspond to an increase in levels in Lake Trasimeno and in the Maroggia basin, both at their lowest in the recent three years.
A downward trend also in Campania, where to the negative balance of Volturno and Sele, are added those of the basins of Piano della Rocca (- 38.5% compared to the water volume of a year ago) and Conza (-1,600,000 cubic meters on 2021).
Although stable, water availability remains comforting in Abruzzo, Calabria and Sardinia, while the positive evolution of the water contingency in Sicily is continuing, whose docks are holding back Mmc. 577.56, or approximately 253 million cubic meters more than last year.
“The regret remains – he concludes Massimo Gargano, General Manager of ANBI – that lif the water conditions are positive, it can only be partially exploited by agriculture on the island, due to the failure to complete numerous water schemes. The repeatedly urged return to ordinary democratic administration in the reclamation consortia, enhancing self-government and abandoning decennial commissioners, would be an important driving force for a renewed protagonism of the territory. “
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