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Weeks of dry winter weather have raised concerns that Italy
could face another drought after the one last summer, with the
Alps having received less than half of their normal snowfall,
according to scientists and environmental groups.
A decree to deal with the drought will soon be looked at by
cabinet ministers, minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin told
Italian daily La Stampa in an interview.
"We are all committed to defining the actions to be taken with
funds already allocated and which, according to an initial
estimate, would amount to 7.8 billion euros," Pichetto Fratin is
quoted as saying.
Italian rivers and lakes are suffering from a severe lack of
water, the Legambiente environmental group said last month,
adding the Po, Italy's longest river which runs from the Alps in
the northwest to the Adriatic, had 61% less water than normal at
that time.
Last July, Italy declared a state of emergency for areas
surrounding the Po which accounts for roughly a third of the
country's agricultural production and suffered its worst drought
for 70 years.
For the coming months, the priority is "to make a sufficient
quantity of water available to meet the demand of Italian
households and businesses, especially those in the agricultural
sector", Pichetto Fratin said.
"There is the need to start long-term planning to improve the
efficiency of our water network, which in some areas of the
country has a pipeline leakage of over 50%, compared to a
national average of 37%. A waste that we can no longer afford",
he added.
($1 = 0.9378 euros)
(Reporting by Gianluca Semeraro; editing by Federico Maccioni
and Christina Fincher)
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