The drought does not stop; we have just experienced the driest October in the last 60 years, with 20 billion cubic meters of water missing.
A very serious situation throughout the country, particularly in Sardinia, where the rainfall deficit was 91%, and the North-West, which received only 5% of the typical October rainfall: these are alarming figures (meteo.it).
On October 26, the Minister of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies, Maurizio Martina, signed the request for a declaration of emergency due to the ongoing drought situation across the Sardinian territory and the consequent damage caused to forage production.
Severe drought is also affecting the entire Central Italy, where an deficit of 84% was recorded in October: only two days of rain were recorded in Florence and Rome, with precipitation of 5 mm in Florence (compared to an average of 102 mm) and 10 mm in Rome (the October average is 95 mm of rain in the Capital). In October during the 1970s, the number of rainy days in Central Italy was, on average, between 8 and 9, and the average temperature was 2°C lower than that recorded in October 2017 (meteo.it).
In the north, the situation is not better: at the Ponte della Becca, in Pavia, the level of the Po River has dropped 3 meters below the hydrographic zero.
“The climate - explains Coldiretti Lombardia - is becoming a strategic element of the economy. In Italy, the damage to agriculture due to crazy weather amounts to over 14 billion euros in the last 10 years. In Lombardy, there are 240,000 businesses operating in sectors affected by climate change, including construction, agriculture, energy, tourism, and insurance. They represent 13% of businesses at the national level and 17% of employees, with a turnover of 114 billion euros per year.”
