2023-04-23 06:23:45
The historic drought experienced by the Po River, the largest and most powerful in Italy, threatens serious consequences not only for the prosperous north it runs through, but for the entire country, given its enormous influence on the Italian economy.
Your Basin”represents 35% of agriculture, 55% of livestock, 55% of hydroelectricity, and is undoubtedly a motor of the Italian economy”, explains the EFE Parid Antoline, president of the Order of Geologists of Emilia Romagnaone of the five regions that form it together with Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto and Friuli Venezia-Julia.
After the drought caused last year agricultural losses of regarding 6,000 million euros, According to the associations of ranchers and farmers, next summer is even more complicated.
“For all uses of water, beyond the maintenance of the ecosystem”focuses Gian Luigi Rossi, researcher of the National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA).
A historic drought
“Never, in the last fifty years, has the Po been so dry,” according to Antoline.
And he resorts to History to explain the current crisis: “SIf we read in the chronicles of the past, we will discover that in July 1530 people crossed the river on foot”Meanwhile in “In the summer of 1811, the enormous heat caused it to dry up, to the point that ‘men, carts and horses passed through the river as if it were a highway'”.
In the last 30 years, the decrease in rainfall has reduced the average flow by 20% during the year and 45% in summer, with special mention for what happened from January to August, when they fell by 35%.
“The situation right now is particularly critical.” why “fundamentally in the last two years, an almost total lack of rainfall” has arrived “to the point of converting” the physiognomy of the river, tells EFE Rossi.
“This section, where the Po meets the Ticino, and which in this season should be overflowing with water, looks almost completely dry,” graphically explained in the middle of a landscape desolate by dryness.
Climate change
The drought already forced last summer to drastically reduce the use of water from the Po, for irrigation and consumption, something that will be repeated this year, although it is only patches in the face of the underlying problem: climate change.
“We need measures to adapt to climate change, which are taking time to arrive at the moment, we know what needs to be done, the responsible authorities have framed the problem, but we are still at the beginning“, Antoline related.
The Po Hydrographic Confederation, which this Thursday warned that the situation of the river is already “extreme drought”works at “strategic planning measures”, such as the return of the water course to its natural state, the management of the vegetation in the channel or the monitoring and control of the embankments.
Antolini also warns of the “probable impact on flooding” and remember that “the length of the dikes of the Po has gone from less than 1,000 km in 1850 to almost 2,500 in the postwar period” alreadyAt the same time there has been an increase in hydrometric heights”.
It is evident that the situationIt is an effect of climate change, along with reduced rainfall, but we have no indication as to whether this will end with another miserable year or if we are headed for widespread water shortages.“, resume Rossi.
Towards tropical agriculture?
The solution involves “finding a way to reduce water consumption, since the large cities of Padania take it from the Po, like Turin”, without forgetting the enormous economic impact on agriculture.
“The water is mainly used for irrigation.“, maintains the researcher, explaining that the drought is affecting the rice fields of Vercellese, Novalese (Piedmont) and Pavese (Lombardy), “where much less has been planted this year in anticipation of water problems.”
The regions of Lombardy and Piedmont produce 93% of the rice in Italy, while Emilia Romagna comes from the designation of origin of the “Po Delta“, among which are some of its most famous varieties, such as carnaroli or arborio.
In an area where the cultivation of corn is also important, which also needs enormous amounts of water, the crisis advises reducing irrigation: “We must move towards more tropical crops”says Rossi.
But Antolini considers that “Although there is talk of directing agriculture towards less water-demanding crops, behind each of the current ones, as in the case of rice, but also strawberries or kiwi, there is a consolidated supply chain that employs thousands of workers. people”.
EFE
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