For more than 110 days, some areas have not received rainfall, according to the Po River Observatory.
Lombardy, a rich region in northern Italy including Milan, was preparing to declare a state of emergency on Thursday in the face of record drought threatening crops, already forcing towns in the Po Valley to ration water.
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“This is an extremely delicate situation“, told the press the president of the Lombardy region, Attilio Fontana, while the Po plain, which crosses the north of the country and is home to important agricultural crops, faces its worst drought for 70 years. According to Attilio Fontana, the state of emergency should be declared not only in Lombardy, but also in three other regions: Piedmont (North-West), Veneto (North-East) and Emilia-Romagna (Centre-North ).
The largest water tank
The state of emergency defines in Italy the best ways to manage the water crisis and aims to provide adequate economic support to ensure the implementation of the urgent interventions necessary to guarantee public safety, the repair of the damage suffered by public and private goods and the normal living conditions of the population.
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The Po represents the largest reservoir of water on the peninsula, much of which is used by farmers. Some areas have not received rainfall for more than 110 days, according to the Po River Observatory. With no rain expected in the near future, municipalities have started installing water tanks and banning watering, filling swimming pools or washing cars.
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Utilitalia, a federation bringing together water supply companies, has asked the mayors of a hundred towns in Piedmont and 25 others in Lombardy to interrupt the distribution of drinking water at night to allow reservoir levels to be restored. The drought is jeopardizing almost a third of national agricultural production and half of the livestock in the Po Valley, according to Coldiretti, the country’s main agricultural association.
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